Two Women Left to Die by Authorities

Posted by Philip Barron at 2:00 PM on June 13, 2007.

Two dead women, half a country apart. One of them dying in a failing hospital in Los Angeles, the other while being held in a St. Louis jail. Both of them failed by systems and authorities charged with watching over them. The Los Angeles case is making national news, while the St. Louis matter remains a local story...for the moment.

In Los Angeles:

A woman who lay bleeding on the emergency room floor of a troubled inner-city hospital died after 911 dispatchers refused to contact paramedics or an ambulance to take her to another facility, newly released tapes of the emergency calls reveal.

Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, died of a perforated bowel on May 9 at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Her death was ruled accidental by the Los Angeles County coroner's office. [...]

County and state authorities are now investigating Rodriguez's death. Relatives reported she died as police were wheeling her out of the hospital after the officers they had asked to help Rodriguez arrested her instead on a parole violation. Sheriff's Department spokesman Duane Allen said Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing. [...]

The incident was the latest high-profile lapse at King-Harbor, formerly known as King/Drew. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is investigating claims of recent patient care breakdowns, including Rodriguez's case.

Federal inspectors last week said emergency room patients were in "immediate jeopardy" of harm or death, and King-Harbor was given 23 days to shape up or risk losing federal funding.

In St. Louis:

That 9-1-1 call from the St. Louis Justice Center at 1:38 a.m. on April 11th was about Lavonda Kimble, 30. Kimble had been brought to the jail 10 hours earlier for failing to appear in court for two traffic tickets. While in custody she suffered a severe asthma attack, but as paramedics arrived on the scene they couldn't find any jail personnel to take them to the patient. Kimble would be pronounced dead an hour later. The paramedic would later write, it had taken 8 minutes to get to Kimble.

"The care our patient received prior to STLFD personnel {arriving} was substandard at best, and the fact that we were not able to reach the patient immediately was detrimental to the patient's outcome." She goes further by saying, "Every time I've been to the justice center it takes 10 to 15 minutes to even get to the patient. There is never anyone to guide us and never any sense of urgency." Now News 4 has obtained this May 30th Corrections Division Internal Affairs report. The report downplays the paramedic's complaints. [...]

Tragically, Kimble wasn't even supposed to be jailed. Her $ 250 bond had been paid hours before she became ill, but a miscommunication kept word from reaching the jail.

More on the St. Louis situation:

The troubling circumstances of Ms. Kimble's death should be the subject of an independent medical investigation. They also raise questions about the quality of care being provided to other inmates at the jail. Inmate care at the city jail is provided by Correctional Medical Services, a St. Louis company that provides health care under contract to 27 state prison systems including Missouri's.

Ken Fields, a spokesman for the company, said he was unable to comment on Ms. Kimble's death. However, he pointed to statistics that he said show the quality of care at CMS- run medical facilities is comparable to that of outside hospitals and clinics.

In the past, CMS has been the subject of intense criticism in lawsuits and court rulings. In 1998, a Post-Dispatch investigation found numerous examples of inadequate or improper care provided to prisoners in several states, sometimes resulting in death.

The director of the Los Angeles County called Rodriguez's death "fundamentally a failure of caring." That accusation applies in equal measure to Kimble's needless death in St. Louis, and should force us all to examine why we allow our institutions - which are only extensions of ourselves and our own values - to place such little worth on the welfare of those in their charge.

Philip Barron is a St. Louis writer and author of the blog Waveflux.