St. Luke's East Parking Probs Play Part In Tragic Demise Of Lee's Summit Lady

Horrific suburban story of grief and loss questions hospital policy amid the tragic loss of a woman on the asphalt just outside of the hospital. 

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Woman lies pulseless outside Saint Luke's ER, family told to call 911

LEES SUMMIT, Mo - It was a morning in late August when Donald Holcomb rushed his mom to Saint Luke's East emergency room. Jennifer Holcomb, a 40 year-old accountant, died the next day. "9:27 a.m. was her last breath," Donald said.

Comments


  1. This is not only heart breaking but completely uncalled for. I have been going to St Lukes east since this virus began and the way they handle things there is unreal. I had to go to this hospital because the cancer doctor we used had switched from Center Point to St Lukes. I hate this hospital and I hate the new clinic they opened on Adams Dairy Pkwy they are just not together about anything. They had people using the same receptionist phone in the waiting room during the peak of the Virus with no one there to clean it. Why would someone call 911 when they are right there like the guy said?? What would they tell 911? That they needed to go to the hospital?? That's crazy.

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  2. I don't understand why the son didn't call the ambulance from home.

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  3. If the facts are truly as stated in this article, the son of this woman should won the hospital after he sues them to hell.

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  4. I work in an ER. Too many people show up and say they need help getting someone out of their car. Well, how did they get in your car? We're not going to send out an extraction team; we'll just call the fire department.

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    1. Put a security guard in the ER to do that. See, I solved your problem. You must be the medical geniuses that shut down our economy for a cold virus.

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  5. Follow protocol and no one gets sued. If someone dies following protocol then too bad. That's the problem with our bureaucratic medical system run by lawyers and insurance companies.

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  6. It's a sad story. I would have just carried my mom into the ER.

    Ambulance chasing lawyers have ruined medical care with their liability lawsuits and have made health care nearly unaffordable for most Americans.

    If you ever visit with a Lawyer they are cold, heartless assholes that don't care about their clients, society or anyone other than making money to buy their mansions and luxury cars.

    Lawyers are leaches who contribute absolutely nothing to society.

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  7. Hospitals are for saving people not letting them die on the asphalt outside. Heads will have to roll. Punishment is on the way for the arrogant hospital people. Too bad.

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  8. A lot of people drive to the ER rather than call the ambulance because an ambulance ride is expensive. Just leaving people to die on the pavement outside because it is not procedure to send out a couple of orderlies to help them into the building is utterly callous cruel. While it is difficult to reconcile some of the claims in the account, how is it that a happy woman drinks herself to death and why did the son just leave her on the pavement on not try to harder to get her indoors, the ER staff bear a portion of the fault for this woman’s death.

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  9. I really don't understand what happened here. I'd pull my car right up to the ER doors and drag my Mom in. Also, he got his Mom into the car, drove to the hospital, got her mostly to the ER door then... Couldn't carry her the rest of the way (sounds like a very short distance)? Couldn't run in and grab a wheel chair put her in it and take her in? Mid morning is a pretty slow time as far as the ER goes, and it was completely full of traffic including under the canopy. He took here there on one morning, but she died the next morning? <- That's the big one: was she resuscitated by the Ambulance, then died later? It's a tragic situation yes, and arrogant ER staff abound. I've witnessed some bad ones, (Research specifically) and some good ones too. I'll withhold judgement here until the full story is known. Unfortunately, this article reads like a propaganda piece.

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  10. Despite the tragic story and irony of dying outside the ER, St. Luke's will not lose a legal case in this instance.

    The victim was not brought into the ER, was not evaluated by staff, and had not been admitted as a patient.

    In hindsight, the family member should have parked at the curb, stepped inside to retrieve a wheelchair (they're right by the entrance), moved his mother from the car into the wheelchair and took her inside to be checked-in. Then go park your vehicle. If she goes into distress while waiting in the ER holding area, the hospital is responsible.

    It may sound crazy or uncaring, but St. Luke's followed the existing standard of care.

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  11. Badly handled by the son. He should have called 911. That would have triggered response by EMTs, who are trained to handle such a situation. ER personnel do not have such training. They are trained to treat patients only when the EMTs wheel them in.

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  12. EMTALA is triggered whenever a patient presents to the hospital campus, not just the physical space of the ED, within 250 yards of the hospital.

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  13. 10:10 nailed it. I checked out the family on facebook. The poor kid has a slight build and obviously wasn't strong enough to carry his mother. He should have left all of this to paramedics. And his poor mom died of alcohol poisoning. He should have called an ambulance after the second or third vomitous.

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  14. 10;10 did not quite nail it. The ER also accepts patients who arrive by their own means. It only makes sense to call the EMTs if the patient requires stabilization or treatment before being moved. The son did not know how to diagnose the severity of alcohol poisoning and was depending upon so-called professionals to help. They did not.

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