Is this occurence the result of having no health insurance or a case of blatant racism?
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=11641638
Not mentioned in the story is that the woman is an attractive white woman, and the baby was black, implying that her boyfriend, the baby's father, is black.
Is it racism that she and her boyfriend were refused care at Las Vegas' public hospital, and so sought help nearby at a private hospital, where they were not attended to, either? Or is it a result of lack of insurance that, had this baby been delivered in either of these hospitals, it would have run up more than half a million dollar hospital bill before dying.
I mean, think of all the life-saving procedures that would have had to have been used trying to save a baby born 3 months premature. There have been cases of very premature babies recovering, and going home to their families, but at a great financial cost, even if the parents have excellent health insurance. What is your opinion?
2009-12-08T21:16:43Z
When she appeared on the local news, I would have guessed that the mother was in her menopausal years. That might account for not noticing missed periods. No everyone puts on the pounds when pregnant. Every pregnancy is different.
2009-12-08T21:18:23Z
You who didn't read the whole story will not be considered for best answer.
?2009-12-08T20:43:46Z
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There are waaaay too many details to narrow it down to this or that. It could have been neither. The article does not say what were her presenting symptoms nor anything about her history. If she came to a busy ER and said that her stomach hurt but not pregnant and had no other presenting symptoms, most likely she was not a made a top priority patient to be seen. She was not refused care but made to wait.
There are many people who present in ERs that can easily be seen in an outpatient clinic or during an office visit. Triage nurses sometimes have to make split second decisions about how fast a patient is seen based on presenting symptoms, knowledge, and intuition. This woman may have been obese (easily to not see the pregnancy bulge), may not have appeared to be in much distress, may have denied pregnancy, and may have had a history of abusing ER services......we just don't know all the details.
If she had been seen and treated in time, every effort would have been made to stop the labor contractions with IV medication. It can't be presumed that she would have delivered a premature infant.......... and the concommitant cost of treating a premature infant.
Most pregnant women have a doctor already, do prenatal care and call their doctor before going to the hospital. If a woman shows up at an emergency room with a premature baby situation she is taking a big gamble. I think the story is tragic, but in an imperfect world errors will be made. Not all emergency care is good care.
"Abney had no idea she was pregnant when she began having severe pains."
I think everyone is racist. Only cowards act on their racist thoughts or use the race card for public gain.
Nobody knew this girl was pregnant, to include the girl. Vegas has enough mixed couples to say this was not a case of blatant racism. Severe pains cannot wait several hours to be treated.
That is a terrible tragedy, yet I can't help but think something is very fishy here. How could she have had no idea that she was pregnant up until the moment of child birth??? Growing stomach? 6 months of missed periods?
As far as racism goes, I don't see any evidence of that, and it is foolish to assume that without any clear information. I mean really.....how can you even suggest it is racially motivated, much less 'blatant, when there is zero evidence to support that?