If you read the glowing article in the local daily Friday on the intrepid Brownsville Fire Department and its readiness to handle COVID-19 cases and to transport patients to area hospitals, you would have thought you were in good hands if you came down with some of the symptoms.
You read how the department under Chief Jarred Sheldon placed a paramedic in the dispatch center to screen calls related to COVID-19 and of using a dedicated ambulance to transport positive or suspicious COVID-19 cases for treatment at local hopitals.Well, it turned out that the article my have been merely tailored to get positive public perception.
The reality was driven home today to a local family at about 4 p.m. when the mom, 42, and who was a former patient who had been treated for pneumonia and released, returned to the Valley Baptist Emergency Center Brownsville, 2073 E Ruben M Torres Blvd. showing symptoms characteristic of COVID-19 infection.
The staff, after performing all the precursory examinations could not positively say she was positive for COVID-19 lacking the appropriate testing capabilities, but everything, including a CAT scan, indicated a possible positive for the virus.
They called ahead to the parent hospital and had her admitted, had a room waiting for her, and completed the preliminaries so she wouldn't have to go through the same thing when she got there.
It was then decided that she should be transported to Valley Baptist Hospital and the Brownsville Fire Dept. Ambulance was called for transport.
That's when the family and the ER staff got an unpleasant - although not unexpected - response.
According to the family and other patients who were there, the request for a FD ambulance - the same on that Sheldon said was ready and available for all COVID-19 suspect patients - was denied at the direction of BFD medical director Dr. John Wells.
Instead, the woman, who was experiencing chest tightness, was feverish, and alfeady had an intravenous tube connected to her arm, was told that she would have to have her family transport her there.Unable to convince higher-ups that her IV would have to be removed and that having her entering a hospital lobby and mingling with medical staff and the public ere would expose people to infection, they were ordered to do as they were told.
Apparently, this is not the first time that BFD ambulance transport has been denied to COVID-19 patients there, say some hospital staffers. But it came as a rude surprise to her family, who couldn't believe what had happened.
And despite the strict requirements of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) that participating hospitals may not transfer or discharge patients needing emergency treatment except with the informed consent or stabilization of the patient or when their condition requires transfer to a hospital better equipped to administer the treatment, the practice is par for the course, there, they say.
According to the EMTALA, once a patient is admitted, the liability for his or her safety or health is the responsibility of the hospital.
'The newspaper article was real pretty," said an observer. "But what happened to that woman is what is happening in reality."
24 comments:
Falls on Boy Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez to fire Sheldon. Totally disgusting.
But you still see the firemen shopping at HEB for their station groceries. Vatos hambriados! Fuera, bola de mamones!
BFD is a collection of fucking moochers! Worthless in an emergency. Where is the union leadership on this? Sleeping, as always.
Trump, The King Of Blame, now blames China for Coronavirus:
He understands his presidency rises and falls on the very pandemic he denied was a pandemic and he is desperate to try to counteract the narrative that has set-in that he wasn’t up to the job. That’s a devastating critique. You don’t get re-elected with that narrative.
El Panson Barton has an immigrant wife and did not get a Stimulus check. Ja ja ja ja
did she have insurance?
there could be other factors
how about the judge put out an announcement that covid 19 patienys should only go to a certain hospital
Its the leadership all the way up to the elected mamones muertos de ambre keeping their businesses open ALL of them.
Tengan huevos and file a complaint with the Texas Department of State Health Services. They will get their license suspended or pulled!!! Or they should have called intercity ambulance. That is why we need more than one ambulance service!!!!!
También háblenle al health department!
- El Perro Peludo
Re-arrange the letters and EMTALA spells TAMALE. Maybe that's the problem.
My hat is off to the Brownsville Fire/EMS staff who risk their lives everyday for our community. Instead of getting complaints, they should be commended. How sad is that City Mamagement raised the health insurance rates for Fire retirees families last year, the change was so drastic that many Retiree opted to dropped their families from the plan, leaving them with no coverage. It is unfortunate that these former city employees put in so many years that in the end were treated differently than police retirees whom the City decided not to raised their rates. This decision was totally unfair to the Fire retirees, City management should not have raised their rates or to be fair, they should have raised BPD retiree family rates as well.
If they drove the lady to the freestanding ER why not take her to valley baptist in the first place? What’s the point of freestanding ERs if they can’t do what hospitals can do? And if “exposing” other people was the problem, what difference would it have made if they drove to Valley Baptist ER directly? Some one really has a hard on for the fire dept lol
Bush calls for unity, Trump shits the stick:
George W. Bush — who, for the record, was the presidential equivalent of getting gored to death in the asshole by a Eurasian moose — was nevertheless a human being with what appeared to be a full range of human emotions. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is an irritated bile duct in a shitty suit.
So naturally when Bush called for putting aside partisanship in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, Trump saw it as a personal affront.
smh...
This is similar to what library director GED Hedgecock is doing to move attention away from what is really happening at the library. Newspaper on face masks is nice on print but the real story is what is happening behind the scenes.
How Trump and the GOP Just Might ‘Liberate’ You to Death
HE ALONE CAN FIX IT
Requirements, liquirements, cagadaquirements...it's all bullshit, Montoya. Those in power will always treat you like dirt, bro. You think Mendez gives a shit? Think again, Mabraqui!
The Brownsville Fire department is a joke. But unfortunately there is absolutely no law stating that they are required to transport patients. Any agency can suspend operations in a state of emergency.
Hope those Firemen get flies in their meats at HEB!!! Lol Hopefully Sheldon gets fired, but mostly likely another pendejo tyrant like Marshall Villarreal will be made chief!!!
Hopefully, the Fire Union will address the unfairness done to their retirees in regards to health insurance for their families next year when their contract is up for renewal. O todos Hijos de Dios o todos Hijos Del Diablo, they shouldn't be treated differently than BPD.
After reading this article, I would like to share a similar experience regarding a member of our family. Our elderly member of our family was hospitalized after being diagnosed with Covid-19 at the beginning of the outbreak of the virus in the Valley. After more than a week of being in the hospital with no family member being able to be near her or take care of her, the hospital’s doctors determined that she needed to be placed on hospice and be return to her home. Her kidneys were not functioning as needed to be and her heart was weak. The other family members living in her home had also been diagnosed with Covid-19. The members of the household themselves infected with the virus decided that bringing her from the hospital would at least give them the opportunity to be near her and take care of her until the Lord called upon her.
The family members called for ambulance services to transfer the patient from the hospital to her home. However, the ambulance services refused to provide the services once they were informed that she was a Covid-19 patient. Therefore, the family members who were ill with the virus had to go to the hospital and pick up our elderly member of our family. She was severely ill in a semi-coma situation unable to stand or walk. She was placed on a wheel chair and transported by our family members from the hospital (same hospital as the article) to the family vehicle.
Hospice services were provided by an agency at home but were very limited. Morphine, oxygen, pampers, and bed items were delivered to the home but left outside by the front door, no hospice services medical provider went inside the home to provide services. Being on a semi-coma situation with no IV connected to her body, the family members gave her a few drops of liquids using a medicine dropper throughout the day and injected her with morphine to ease her pain.
It has been a difficult period for our family members who are not ill with this virus being unable to visit or take care of our love once in a time like this other than bringing them some essential like food and other items. However, thanks to the Lord, after being at home for more than a month and being taken care by our family members who were ill themselves and with the prayers of so many, she has been improving from her illness each coming day. She is now able to sit up, eat some soft foods, and take larger amount of liquids. Not bad for a lady who with God’s will might be celebrating the century mark in a few years. The other family members have also been able to recover from their illness and doing much better.
@2:41 You are the biggest bullshitter liar in the world! Liar Liar!!!
It's not the Mayor's , The fire chiefs, The firefighters, or the Hospitals call. Read the damn story and and you can see Dr. Wells makes the call. Morons.
The Fire dept have a medical director since when? Another lawsuit keep em commmmmming
Hey, May 4,2020 at 4:10PM, you are definitely the bastard son of Donald Trump.
@1:22 I'm a female you retarded bed wetter!!!
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