Vegas Hospital Suspends 6 After Baby Dies

(CBS/AP)  Six University Medical Center employees have been suspended while the county investigates claims that a woman was ignored for so long in the emergency room that she went home and gave birth to a premature baby who later died.

Clark County released a statement Friday from hospital chief executive Kathy Silver expressing condolences to the 25-year-old woman, Roshunda Abney, and promising a thorough investigation.

"All of our employees are expected to treat patients with dignity, respect and kindness," Silver said. "We will uncover what happened that day and will not stand for the mistreatment of our patients or their families."

Others who were in the waiting room at the region's only public hospital have corroborated accounts by Abney and her fiance, Raffinee Dewberry, that they were ignored for several hours Nov. 30 until they finally left.

Abney gave birth at home to a premature baby girl who died a short time later, authorities said.

CBS News affiliate KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reported that Abney and Dewberry apparently didn't know of the pregnancy. Witnesses also told KLAS-TV that hospital staff members wouldn't help Abney even though she was in horrible pain.

In a separate issue, county officials also said in the statement the hospital was sending letters to more than 100 patients treated at the regional trauma center Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, offering free credit monitoring to those whose personal information may have been leaked to outsiders.

Silver has said the hospital was cooperating with an FBI investigation of whether Social Security numbers and other information may have been given to personal injury attorneys. Silver said those allegations hadn't been proved.

The county-run hospital has stepped up its patient record security procedures, Silver said.

[Sloughfoot]

Another over paid CEO blaming all others and giving lip service to issues of; privacy and emegency care, which should be elementary to any heath care facility.

This is at a county run facility, just wait folks till the Fed has corraled the medical histories of all Americans and operate the U.S Medical Systems of America. You think your postal service is lacking!

[guest173]

it seems like a lot of people who live in Las Vegas are very hardened and just seem to not know how to have a heart. I lived there for 2 years and was appalled at how horrible the public school system and many other services are. I guess they like to watch the strippers and play the casinos and don't care about people, I am not surprised their hospital is so horrible too. they seem to only want to think about the neon lights

[andacar]

If you are a conservative (on Medicare most likely) raving about socialized medicine, then please don't tut tut about people getting turned away, overworked staff and patients being ignored. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Either emergency rooms are places where anyone who is sick can go to get help, or we end up with society where the profit margin will calculate exactly how much a human life is worth. You may find a body or two outside the emergency room now and then, but you can comfort yourselves that they are necessary casualties in the war against socialism.

[averjane]

If you want a socialist system, go to some other third world and establish one. We the People, want a democracy here in the US. The problems with hospitals is probably job cuts if people are overworked not because we do not run a socialist government. At least point your finger at the right thing instead of coming off the wall with something.

[fedup12]

you know I am not necessarily for or against the gov. healthcare bill but you know what really pizzez me off. The hypocrisy of the conservatives. But I have health insurance and I work darn hard for it.

What gets me is that war Bush pushed on us. You know the Iraq one. OMG it took Bush and the Red congress about a month to vote on that and then billions extra to fund it every 3 months. And freakin look at what we got there.

We could have funded health care for a long time, already had the kinks out and been on down the road... And had something for it.

[newsterl]

We could have funded health care for a long time, already had the kinks out and been on down the road... And had something for it."

Sure coulda. $10 billion a month for 8 yrs we threw so far into the Iraq toilet could have funded cancer research, health care and more.

[ItsMyVoice]

I actually had to recheck the article you commented on to makesure it was the right one. This is about a baby dying because people weren't doing their jobs!

[edgy44]

The CEO either needs to clean house, or get out of the way and let a real CEO come in and do the job.

[YurtPop]

This really doesn't surprise me that this happens in the US and elsewhere.. While I don't blame US health care system directly, these types of events usually crop up in Countries where insurance is a necessity before a certain level of care is ascertained..

This is also why I love our Canadian health care system.. While not perfect if you end up needing immediate care you get it regardless of who you are.. Cdns complain about wait times but in reality it is not that much longer then the US system.. I don't understand why Americans think a universal health care system is such a bad idea.. Sure its going to cost a lot of money to get it in order.. Then require Americans to pay into it, but ask yourself this.. Do you feel you should have to pay for the cost of every procedure you get? Even if you have insurance your bill is certainly going to be more then in Canada..

There are problems with Universal health care though.. The fact that wait times are high... This isn't really related to CDN system in general its more to do with the fact the US system can pay CDN doctors more.. We've lost so many doctors to the US in the last 10 years alone this can easily account for the increasing wait times.. I think if the US\CDN system were both universal it will decrease these times dramatically and improve overall health in North America ten-fold..

Just remember the best health care system in the world right now is a universal health care setup..

[Aine57]

Another thing that does concern me is this. It is not all unusual to spend hours and hours in emergency. Staff have to triage numerous patients and take them in order to save the most lives. I myself have spent up to 6 or more hours in emergency care, once following a serious car accident. People who had been stabbed or shot had to go ahead of me.

Waiting rooms in emergency are often packed to capacity anyway. There are people who seek no medical care at all until they have to go to emergency. There are lots of people with no insurance who use emergency as their primary care physician. There are patients all over who speak little or no English or who do not know how to interact with doctors and staff in order to make themselves and the urgency of their situation understood. Emergency rooms are closing all over because they are not financially feasible for largely uninsured populations. Again, more facts need to be explained.

[bubbadubba]

Happens all the time and we need to thank Republicans.
If we had health care for all, people would not need to clog EMERGENCY rooms for health care they could not afford.
Thanks Republicans, you killed that baby because you are paid off by the insurance companies.

[YurtPop]

While true this happens all the time.. Emerg rooms usually clogged (US & Canada) it's for very different reasons.. While the US may blame politics.. The CDN system is being pillaged of all its doctors who leave to work for way more money in the US.. Remember this if your against Universal Health Care and think moving to Universal Health Care would be worse..

If Canada were to have all the doctors we need then you would see headlines stating "Wait Times = Four Times Longer then CDN system, and we have to PAY!"..

[Aine57]

I don't understand. Was a lack of menstrual periods for more than half a year not grounds for suspecting pregnancy? No morning sickness? I know people who have it all day long, and for nine months. How well versed was she in the facts of life? It's a terrible thing that she was in pain, but if she didn't have a clue she was pregnant, did she expect the hospital to know? What did she and the boyfriend do to inform the hospital of her pain? Were the other people in waiting gunshot victims bleeding to death? How soon after her return home did she give birth? When the baby die? Did she and the father hang around the house for a long time? Too much is missing from this story for us to assume it's the hospital's fault. The baby was also premature, wasn't it? If that's the case, and there was clearly no prenatal care of any kind since she was clueless about being pregnant, the baby had a far worse shot at life than a child carried to term of normal size and weight, and anticipated by the parents. It's a very sad story, but more facts need to come out.

[sbelknap01]

Thank you.

[cyberbanditt]

So sad