I think people should try not to be so quick to judge hospitals and ER staff. Especially ERs. Yes there are some cold and callous doctors and staff there, but ER and acute care centers are often the most overworked, understaffed, and bombarded areas of the medical field. I know, as I work two transcription jobs, one of which is almost purely ER work. They have had patients being seen in hallways and even out in their cars before because of they were so overfilled. And I'd say at LEAST 50% of ER visits, at least, and I'd probably guess closer to 60% or higher, are people feeling like they are having a heart attack. Most of them aren't, although there is no way to know that until they do cardiac enzymes, EKGs, so on and so forth. There's a full barrage of tests and protocol they must do for each patient who comes in with chest pain symptoms.

Add to all that, how often people abuse ERs, it is enough to make any doctor wary and a bit detached. So many people run in for every sniffle, from being drunk, from taking too many drugs. I even had one report where a mother rushed her perfectly well child to the ER because she found some mold in his room.. Then there are the pain drug seekers, dreaming up elaborate stories to get narcotics, forcing the doctors to have to research and call around to pharmacies and other doctors to get the real story. Belligerent and nasty patients who hurl all manner of abuse at the medical staff.

Finally, I think so many people do not realize the true purpose of the ER. They are not there to give a definitive diagnosis and cure you, to do surgery and long-term treatment. They are there to sew cuts closed, splint broken bones until the patient can get to the orthopedist, or admit to the hospital for more treatment where the case then passes from their hands. They are, in essence, a quick stop to look at the picture and do a few rudimentary lab tests to find out where the patient should go next. Half the time, the patient never follows up or ignores their advice. This particular woman may have had some end-stage cancer going on, or maybe something such as ulcerative disease from drinking, perhaps had been told before to stop drinking and get to a GI specialist and she wasn't able or never did. We really do not know the whole picture at all to make accusations against the hospital.

I don't know much about this particular hospital, but I listen and see people complaining about hospitals and ERs constantly, and they often just don't know the other side of things.