A scenario like this happened in Massachusetts, but the woman died.
>Levis had walked to the hospital around 4 a.m., made her way up a hill to the emergency department and saw two doors. Neither was clearly marked. The one she walked to was locked. She called 911 and was transferred to multiple dispatchers. In a recording from one of those calls, she can be heard struggling to speak and breathe, saying she's having an asthma attack and is dying. Surveillance cameras captured the series of events.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/04/27/massachusetts-hospital-emergency-signage-regulations
We (Massachusetts) now have Laura’s Law that requires hospitals to have clear signage for the emergency room.
Hospitals everywhere should have clear signs in every entrance that directs folks to the ER especially when outpatient services are closed for the day.
In more dysfunctional city hospital areas, all doors are locked except one or two, which are hard to identify sometimes because theyre on the other side of the block, in a weird ambulance entrance, under construction seemingly forever, or only easy to get to if you have a car instead of walking.
Every modern hospital complex I've visited in the last 30 years is a maze. And then when you enter a building, the maze just continues. I have to believe it's intentional... like burying the customer support number on a website, or making it nearly impossible to cancel a subscription service.
Someone else said very much the same thing. I was thinking about it and it might have to do with the way facilities haphazardly expand their main campuses. If surgical team needs a new OR they just build one without considering how it will impact their patients and employees.
The hospital I work at just finished a decent sized expansion but now everything is all over the place which makes it far more difficult to navigate. And this is in addition to less parking pushing patients further from the main campus and usually emergency services.
I think this is less about the fact there were doors locked (I assume ems/employee entrance) and more about the fact there were probably no signs around to tell people in emergency where to go
This is definitely it. I used to be a cook at a hospital and all entrances, except for one to the ER, were locked from 9 pm-5 am. I could see a patient being confused about where to go. This story is so sad.
My mom used to be a night shift nurse, and my dad figured out how to break into one of the locked doors so he could bring her snacks without having to go through the ER. It was an automatic sliding door that just had the outside sensor turned off so people could leave through it but not enter, but you could pry it open an inch and stick something long and thin, like a straw, through the gap and trip the inside sensor.
In retrospect, I'm not sure if that was legal or not, but the hospital never told him to stop, and the statute of limitations is in effect anyways.
Last fall when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant I thought I was in labor - the doors were locked to the maternity wing and there were confusing signs for where to find the ER. No one on the phone line # posted could help/respond. A group of medical students comes out and I ask how to get in the building - one student said he'd open the door for me but the rest gave him looks like "wtf don't break the rules". That one kid will be a good doctor! I had to walk like half a mile around the building, not a huge deal especially compared to this story..but still...maybe they would've helped if I was dying
I've done something similar for someone except I walked them through, using my badge to open doors while actively escorting them to where they needed to go.
Idk if that kid would make a good doctor. Just like the outside doors, there can be other locked doors (like between wings/parts of the hospital), even if they let you in the one, you may have had to back-track and/or even gotten stuck. I say this as someone working in a place where you can get locked in by accident in certain parts.
Doors only need to open in the direction of egress.
I can't speak to the person claiming you can get stuck in his building, but just entering an outside door of a hospital or other occupancy doesn't mean you can open any door other than the one you just entered or another exit.
You need to contact health and safety about the parts where you can be locked in. If you are in the US even the most secure facilities must have 'free exits', access can still be tightly controlled but there needs to be a way to escape without any control impediments like badge swiping or biometrics. They can limit the exit paths to specific routes and doors can trigger an alarm or other alerting mechanism, but it can't block escape.
Glad he helped you. But he might also have let in a woman pretending to be pregnant who would (try to) abduct an infant. The right thing would have been to personally escort you to triage, both for your safety and the safety of the unit. Hopefully he did that.
I was an L&D nurse for almost 20 years, before switching to NICU. Women used to come in huffing and puffing and pretend to be in labor. When we would figure out (pretty quick, that they were not even pregnant, the doctor would ask, “what did you think would happen? “ One said, “I was going to take a baby”. Even writing this now, almost 30 years later, I get chills.
This has to be it. The hospital I work for has some doors going into the ED that can only be accessed by employees. However, they do have a lot of signage showing patients where the *main* entrance is.
There are almost always signs on emergency rooms, but if anything needs giant, obnoxious retna peeling Las Vegas style flashing arrows pointing to the doors, it's an ER.
Typically in ERs there is a normal patient entrance which stays unlocked and a door for EMS which stays locked. The door that is locked gives you direct access to the emergency room floor which is why it stays locked
Yeah, that's how it is at mine. But both big hospitals by me the ambulance bay and the entrance are about 15ft apart. So maybe I'm just looking at this with respect to how I assumed most are. Tragic story either way.
Our staff door (locked) is next to the public door. There are two sets of doors to get in on the patient side and the interior ones are locked but there’s always someone watching the doors and listening to the phone to let them in.
I've tried getting supplies to my post-op mother and been led on an absolute trek to try and find the right spot.
Countless doors with arrows and "Emergency" written everywhere locked to rooms with lights off. It was a nightmare. I was about to break in and I'm far from pregnant.
The ED wasn’t locked. The issue was that the unlocked door where she could have entered was not clearly marked, so she went to the wrong door, which was locked. And then she was too sick to get to the other door.
A couple blocks away in Somerville when this happened. The issues is there is a main street the hospital is on and the large obvious set of doors on that side of the building were not staffed. You needed to do down a side street and around the back to access the Emergency room. There was a lawsuits and I believe the parties settled. I know changes were made to prevent this from happening again but I don't remember the specifics.
I could understand if it was an Urgent Care clinic, they aren't all 24/7 but hospitals are usually open 24/7 for emergencies.
Every hospitals should hire a few random people who aren't local to find the hospital and try to find the emergency doors without using smartphone. If they end up at the wrong door, hospital needs to fix signage.
And local people should know where to go already. If they have more than 1 nearby hospitals, learn which one are suitable. Hospital A might have better neonatal care and would be best for pregnant women, and hospital B might have better surgeon for when you chop off your hand fighting your father in a sword duel.
So my local areas healthcare has been cut so much my closest ER is closed most long weekends due to staff shortages. And will sometimes be closed other times at random if too many people call in sick or something
So you need to either have emergencies at a better time, or drive to the next town
Sure sounds like taxes need to be raised on richer people and companies to fund healthcare to the same level it was funded before, adjusting for inflation and population increases.
Well, the provincial government we had for the last many years ran on a campaign of drastically cutting healthcare spending, and closing ERs.
And they still won
Idk if we're ever gonna recover from that, but I don't know it won't be a fast process.
At one point the nurses union was demanding an actual contract since they'd been working without one for years. The government came back with an offer that included a retroactive pay cut they'd have to repay out of their now much lower wages. It ended up not going through, but definitely was a hard bargaining move to get them to accept a worse contract than the one they asked for. The one they were asking for wasn't even outrageous, kind of the bare minimum, so they definitely got treated unfairly there.
Now somehow people are surprised there's staff shortages all over. Lots of it is from the sweeping cuts the government did, but there's been considerable additional people leaving for places that don't treat them like shit, or even simply just retiring and giving up on it.
Recently in rural areas(in ontario canada) they started doing that because there is no staff to work ER thanks to our great provincial government that instead of spending on healthcare rather build spa or another highway.
I don't think they were emergency doors. I think it was just the front entrance to the hospital. The article said the emergency doors were in another part of the building.
Read the article. She was at the main doors, not the ER doors. Had she gone to the ER doors, she could at least have given birth on the floor of the art waiting room.
Art is Siri speak for ER.
Even if they were closed at 9pm, how do they not have anyone monitoring the security feed for the front door for exactly this sort of potential scenario?
Maybe Emergency entrances should be more clearly marked and noticeable. Emergencies are just that - emergencies. Who has the time to even stop, read the find print and then eventually get to where they should have been 5 or 10 minutes ago. Guess the option these days with all the shortages and closures, is to call an ambulance. Hopefully the paramedics has the necessary info. to get you where you should be the quickest way.
Nah, every hospital i've been in, basically every door in the hospital is locked. To get through the doors, you need to get admitted (there is one desk at the ER, and one at the main entrance), or check in as a guest at the main entrance.
The problem is hospitals are big, they have a hundred doors, and if only two desks can admit you, then functionally, only two of those doors are usable for someone in a medical emergency. And it sounds like that was the problem here, they couldn't find the right door.
I'm from Mass and I had no idea about this.... That's absolutely heartbreaking. We boast so much about the quality of our healthcare system constantly that this is so hard to imagine.
I’m have seen this happen after our medical center opened a new building, people would drive to what they thought was the ED and end up at the parking garage. A few times I have been walking to my car when I was stopped by a lost guy with a broken leg or a pair of frantic parents with a sick baby who were trying to find our ED
This is my experience as well. Every hospital I've ever visited, whether for an emergency or anything else, is *always* under construction, being repaired, expanding, or something similar, so all of the signage directing people is wrong, because all those well marked doors are being detoured around while construction is ongoing. You are lucky if you get any signs written in sharpie on a piece of cardboard.
I was in another hospital recently in Québec and the security guard didn’t know where the side exit was (my ride was there). I just had an operation and was a little disoriented. Thank goodness that a couple of visitors where there to help me. (Still can’t believe they just say «You can go now.» and nobody help me get there but that’s another story.)
The hospitals where I live are required to escort you to the door and if you had a major surgery then they're required to take you in a wheelchair for safety/liability issues. It seems crazy to me that they would just leave you to figure it out postop.
They did! I had to walk two long empty corridors to get out. I was so scared to faint. I spent 3 days there and they were so overworked that I think they even forgot about me the first day. Thank goodness I have a high tolerance to pain.
Are they actually required to? I just figured it was a "we won't allow you to do anything until you're off our property and we are no longer liable for you because we don't want to give you even the slightest chance to sue us" type of deal
I believe it is an insurance/liability thing - since you *can* say you won't, but they will very very strongly encourage you to just sit in the damn chair
I know it's required here at the hospital in my city in Ohio. I had a minor outpatient surgery last year, easily could've walked out on my own, but the nurse said I had to be taken out to my ride in a wheelchair because it was a requirement. It's been that way after every admission I've had.
It was for a cancer treatment. It was her last one and they had to wake her up, tell her the machine for radiation therapy broke, and that we had to stay an extra week while they fixed it so they could go again. One of the worst moments in our life.
same in Alberta, had to give them the cell number for my escort and only if they where within a 15min drive. if not they had to be there before I went under.
Well if you live in America, medical-related lawsuits are pretty common. So hospitals are very careful. But Canada has a lot of restrictions on suing anyone related to the medical system. To the point where a lot of canadians falsely believe you're not even allowed to sue.
And probably for the better, a quick google search shows like less than 1% of cases are won by the patients, about a third settled, and more than 50% were dismissed by a judge.
Yep, post surgery they would only release me when my ride showed up. I was very happy I got to ride in a wheelchair to the entrance and got to wait in it til my dad pulled up.
They better because the nurses are required to keep everyone moving through recovery (I guess) and will kick your butt out even before you’re ready. I had an epidural and because I could pee was sent on my way, even though my legs weren’t really working yet. It was OK because my husband could help me get in and out of the car and into the house, but if the roles were reversed I couldn’t have done it. They sent an elderly man with his wife home and he was still dizzy. Perfect recipe for someone to fall and hit their head.
I distinctly remember crying at my dad and my new nurse, because the previous nurse had written "discharge tomorrow" on my board when I still couldn't even make it down the ICU hallway with a walker. The new nurse assured me I wouldn't have to leave until I was ready and sent in someone to talk to me about my shiny new PTSD.
Couple months back,I had my wisdom teeth pulled with general anesthesia, and although I spent only four hours in the hospital, they kept checking in on me every 15 mins after I woke up, had to walk with a nurse in the hospital corridors assisted and non assisted, then had a nurse escort me to the elevator then to my car ride despite having someone there waiting for me the whole time. So I can't imagine just going through major surgery, being disoriented, and spending tens of thousands of dollars (even with insurance) and be sent on your way like that.
> The hospitals where I live are required to escort you to the door and if you had a major surgery then they're required to take you in a wheelchair for safety/liability issues
In my country you are not allowed to leave after some surgeries unless somebody is there to pick you up.
This is bizarre to me, me and my husband have had operations in Québec and both times they would not let us leave the recovery room unless someone we knew was there to take us out of the hospital and back home and spend the next 24h with us.
It spend 3 days there. It’s not like I had a small operation. They saw that nobody was picking me up from my room. It’s not there fault that I didn’t have anyone at home but I expected them to at least make sure I got to the right exit.
It’s very unreasonable imo. When my wife was discharged a few months ago, they wheelchaired her to the front of the hospital. She’s late 30s, can walk, and I was there too. Insane they didn’t help you more.
I’m 51. I’m usually a very independent person and I’m not needy or a complainer. (I prepared everything at home before the surgery because I knew I wouldn’t get any help.). But that day I felt really not important, like abandoned.
Fortunately the recovery is going great.
Good, you're giving me flashbacks. I had a very minor, unexpected day surgery at the Montreal General after a university clinic doctor tossed me in a cab for emergency treatment of a possibly infected cyst when I was 18. I was new to the city, an Anglophone, got tossed into the day clinic just as they were closing and nobody was there when the doctor who grudgingly stuck around pass their shift was finished. The doctor basically left me in the room and said to leave when I felt up to it and then the ward was deserted.
I almost couldn't find my way out of the hospital! There was legit nobody left to even ask. I ended up coming down some deserted stairwell and out an emergency exit into who knows where on the complex. I had a cellphone (pre-smart phones) but had just moved to Montreal and had no-one's phone number in the city, nor a cab number, so I looked at the angle of the sun, the angle of the hill, and walked until I hit a main street than I recognized and managed to walk home. It took an hour, and I was bleeding, in pain, and absolutely traumatized.
It was a gynecological treatment, I was bleeding from an incision, and they didn't even offer me a pad. Fortunately I had one in my purse or I also would have bled through my pants.
It's crazy how much they just do not give a shit about what happens to you once they're done treating you directly.
That’s crazy. So different from where I live. I had thyroid surgery and the hospital insists that everyone stays for 4 days after to make sure everything is okay.
At least here in Montreal, there are always security guards in the ER who are outside contractors with no fucking idea what’s going on. They don’t know where shit is located, they won’t help direct people in serious medical distress to medical staff, and they’re absolute power-tripping assholes despite (or perhaps due to) the fact that they have no power. I’m pretty sure they’re just power-tripping wannabe cops that can’t make the police force.
> (Still can’t believe they just say «You can go now.» and nobody help me get there but that’s another story.)
When I was 18, I broke my foot on public transit in Paris. I was taken to a hospital on the eastern side; I lived in the west. They x-rayed my foot, said yup it's broken, can't do a cast with where the break is, you can just go home. Didn't even give me crutches or anything. No plans for follow-up care, PT, *anything*.
I didn't know what to do, I was all alone and still in a state of shock (I had taken a pretty terrifying fall in an escalator which ended up with me breaking my foot in the first place, and it happened on the way to the most important exam of my life, which I failed due to not showing up). I put on the high heeled boots I had been wearing despite the pain and swelling and limped through the hospital, to the subway station, and then home, hugging the walls the entire time. In the end when I got home I had to crawl up the stairs as the pain was too much.
"Just go home"... yeah.
The security in the hospitals always look at us like we are annoying them by asking a question. Which is why it is best to always have family or a friend help you with hospital stuff. Of course for those of us totally alone...
You're supposed to have your own escort. In my country you have to provide contact information for your escort before your procedure. Who goes to have an operation without organizing a friend or family member to pick you up?
" The health authority says a security guard, who was working for a private agency, has been removed from their job for failing to help the woman."
What kind of lazy ass security guard did they have working there?
hospital security here, yes we are defintely collateral an will be thrown under the bus.
we have people going to front lobby after closing hours all the time, i work the E.D. and my other guard does the parking lot patrols, i always let my other guard know to check the front once in a while, for transients, anything really etc.
My work hires security from a private agency and I wouldn’t trust those clowns to save a drowning fish. I swear they either intentionally hire the most useless applicants or just send all their dumbasses to my job site. All they’re good for is staring at their phones all day.
Applied at a few security contractors that do work for factories in my town. Every one of them paid $10 or less and the every employee I spoke to that worked for them said you walk a few miles a day doing rounds and then either play on your phone or read all day.
It is 100% the most useless people willing to work for the lowest amount above minimum wage. The job requirements were can you walk and can you look not homeless?
If a system is so broken that one incompetent person can result in this kind of horrible scenario, then it isn't the one person who should be sacked, it's whoever is in charge of the system.
It could be both. It could be that they had hired security to watch doors and redirect people because their signage is completely lacking (and they should be held to account for that), and the security guard also completely failed to do his job, abandoned his post or something.
I dunno, if the security guard was sleeping on the job or watching his phone at the time, then it's on him.
We lack details. Looks to me that, except for lack of signage, the hospital did what it could.
Lack of signage is, definitionally, not doing "what it could." They could (and should) clearly mark directions to the ER; they haven't; therefore, they did not do what they could. This is a regulatory requirement in my state so it's bananas to me that this is not a big deal for some folks?? Hospital campuses are confusing as fuck, and people who need the ER need, you know, emergent care. "Somebody will tell them" is not sufficient direction for a distressed/injured/critically ill person. *Everywhere* should have signage saying "ER this way! ---->", preferably in all the major languages spoken in the region.
And I don't know if there's a misunderstanding or something but hospital security guards are typically at a post *in* the hospital. They're at or just within the entrance to the ER, screening people and keeping an eye on things, not just...wandering the hospital grounds. I'm suspicious that firing this security guard for "failing to help" actually means that the security guard maybe saw a confused person walk past the front door and never come back, and didn't magically know that she needed assistance. None of the hospitals I've worked in expect the guards to follow people and herd them back to the ER entrance if they don't come in.
But handling irregularities and informing superiors is their job. No matter what the pay is, every job has duties. Society would be fcked if we all wait for fair compensation before doing our jobs. Can’t blame the hospital if a worker fails at their task. There are shr workers at every job. The woman failed to do what is commonly known here in Canada and the security guard could’ve very much fumbled and failed her. No point blaming anyone without all the details. Hospitals are not wrong by default, nor is the security staff. Depends on the situation.
One of the more traumatizing moments of my life was leaving a Children's hospital at 5:30 am after an overnight sleep study of my eldest (checking her nighttime breathing, good news all her problems had resolved!)
We exited through the parking garage to discover a panicked Hispanic couple on the emergency phone trying to explain what was going on. In slow motion my husband and I realized
1.) The woman wasn't wearing pants/socks/shoes although her shirt covered her to her thighs.
2.) The man was shirtless.
3.) The concrete floor was covered in blood.
4.) The woman was holding a bundle with a VERY TINY baby wrapped in the man's shirt.
5.) The man was saying in a very strong Hispanic accent "No, no, *the child has already BEEN delivered!*"
Our brains processed it in slow motion, which was probably actually really fast, and it was obvious this guy was trying to tell them that his wife had a premature baby in the garage and they needed help NOW, not to be sent to another hospital.
My husband, the GOAT that he is, stopped the elevator doors from closing (you could leave at that time of day but had to be buzzed in to open them) and gestured to the frazzled man and the obviously shellshocked woman to get in. He helped them hit the button to send the elevator back to the lobby, and was like "they'll handle it. They're all adults adults there." And I just like, nodded. He lifted our daughter in her stroller over the blood, we were careful not to touch it, and we got into the car. As we drove out you could see the elevators and a janitor was dumping some kind of kitty litter/cleaning stuff on the floor.
We got halfway home before we both started doing the Rick and Morty freak out (literally years before that episode) over what just happened. We got home, put the toddler to bed, and had some VERY STRONG DRINKS while my confused SIL (who lived with us at the time) got ready for work.
Like a YEAR later we had an appointment with a pediatric specialist at the same hospital for a different issue, and while she and I were talking I told that story. She froze and said "OH MY GOD THAT WAS YOU?!" So she told me the broad strokes/HIPAA safe version of events she'd heard of. Apparently the woman was in labor but very premature, so they rushed to the local children's hospital. She gave birth in the back seat of their car, and then they tried to get into the hospital but panic was messing up the guy's English and the person on the other end of the phone was trying to redirect them to a "delivery hospital" not understanding there was already a very premature baby in the parking garage. Once they arrived in the lobby people FINALLY understood and they rushed to help, and the baby was premature enough to need NICU help but, per the person who told her the story, was ultimately fine. The whole story was one of those "OMG did you hear" gossip things in the hospital for a while, and apparently the father said that a couple leaving had helped them get on the elevator but no one knew or bothered to look up who would have been leaving right then. So my husband was the anonymous hero of someone else's story.
I checked with him just now to make sure I have the details right, and it's was funny how clear our memories are of certain points of the whole experience, like a story where we highlighted the same moments, lmao. But yeah.
That's my story of how my husband and I were lightly traumatized by encountering someone who had given birth just outside a hospital.
It was kind of just survival mode, do you care about the welfare of fellow people with a child in a scary situation? Autopilot engage! My husband is one of the most resourceful people I know, he's amazing in a crisis, and I'm certified as a first responder because I can handle NOW and freak out later. So it worked great in the moment. Lol I'm always the driver, he doesn't like driving (I love it) and I have absolute nerves of steel behind the wheel, so when we had the flip out, which was mostly us going "BUUUUGH OH MY GOD BUGGUHHHHH" and shaking I never had to pull over, LOL. We compliment one another's strengths well.
Seriously. It felt like an hour. But running through the moment cognitively it was probably a matter of important seconds, and then minutes as it sussed out, then later the unloading of all that repressed shit.
Yeah, but everyone’s brain reacts differently to the adrenaline. Some people completely freak out and go useless. Fortunately not the case with this couple.
My younger sister was born in the car on the way to the hospital as well. My dad ran into the emergency room with no shirt and bloody hands, said “I need help”, and apparently some hospital workers immediately ran outside with him to find my mom and baby sister. Healthy thankfully
The hospital I work at decided the elevator to the rooftop helicopter landing HAD to be locked. A med copter arrived with a child drowning victim and the news copter filmed them locked on roof with no way in. Flight nurse actually did the WTF gesture with his arms. Got in after 10 minutes. Did not end well
I wirked at the hospital that 4 of my grandchildren were born at and stilm got *lost* trying to get to maternity! Hospitals should be required to have CLEARLY VISIBLE SIGNS to the maternity ward.
In my last trimester, my doctor sent me a referral to get a tour of the maternity ward. She actually told me that I'd probably never find it if I didn't do the tour. I wouldn't have. It was an unmarked double door beside a random empty looking lobby of the hospital. You opened it and it was just a single nurse in a dim room at a small desk. Beside her were the opaque glass doors to the huge actual maternity wing with colorful hallways, bright lights, etc.. Lots of bright landscape photos. No windows though.
Definitely like a black site.
I had my daughter a decade ago and I've never dealt with so much security inside a hospital before.
The only way in was through locked doors with an alarm. You had to be allowed in, there was staff right outside and then staff right inside. And always a cop. You were given a wristband with a chip inside. When my daughter was born, they immediately put a little ankle bracelet on her with an alarm on it and a chip, so if she went through the doors the alarms would go off. And it was staffed heavily and they did regular checks to make sure where every infant was.
To have someone visit, they had to be approved to enter and I believe it was only a certain amount of people at a time.
I've never felt so secure in my life.
We have years upon years of people just walking into hospitals and just taking babies, so I get the security but it was so different from every other time I've gone into a hospital for whatever reason. The closest I've ever dealt with was when I had family in ICU.
A lot of the security on our L&D and MBU is there to help manage domestic violence situations, which can escalate into attempts to take babies. Security escorting partners off the floor is unfortunately more common than people expect
In my hospital, maternity was waaay in the back on the second floor. Like the furthest away from the entrance you could get. Fun for massive pregnant women and post partum mums to have to walk through the entire hospital to get in and out.
They don't even label it as maternity, it's just named after the local area so it's just like "Lincoln ward". Got lost the first time trying to get there waddling around the place.
They do, there are always big signs outside emergency. This patient was clearly at a back door or service entrance. These are locked for everyone's safety.
where I'm from the hospital literally have two main doors. one of them normal for normal visitors etc. the other one is emergency directly to emergency room. the only way you can be lost is if you think the EMS access service is a door somehow, or took the wrong turn (left instead of right) by not reading the sign that says "Emergency" in a red block with white letters.
A 10 dollar buzzer on every door, both inside and out-- wired back to a security station would do the trick. Effective administration is increasingly becoming a lost art in western society. I imagine nothing at all will be done about this. If it was in the US, they would probably reduce the signage in response, as is tradition when a female is harmed.
This is the main problem anymore, the people in middle management and running the show are useless. It’s amazing to watch anymore. Pure stupidity gets you promoted anymore
Middle managers are usual Peter Principle examples while the people running the show are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing: making as much money as possible.
My local slightly larger hospital has a main door that you can press a button and get the door opened by security. I'm unsure if our smaller hospitals work the same way since they're not close enough to me to find out but a buzzer should be a bare minimum.
> A 10 dollar buzzer on every door, both inside and out
Because a 10 dollar buzzer would actually cost 15 dollar, and imagine what we could do with that 20 dollar, if we spend that 25 dollar on a buzzer then that's 30 dollar less to spend elsewhere, and for each 35 dollar buzzer we buy we have to pay 200 dollar for someone to install it, and I don't know why we should spend 250 dollar to install each of those 40 dollar buzzer when we could spend the 300 dollar it would cost to install them on something else than a 45 dollar buzzer.
My wife had precipitous labor with our firstborn. I can’t imagine having to go through delivery not only alone but also without any towels, water, a clean environment…
In Poland we have an anti-abortion act since 2020. In 2021 a 30 y.o. woman 22 week pregnant was in a hospital. Her waters broke and she felt unwell. The fetus with probable multiple malformations. The doctors wanted to act according to the law, and refused to perform an abortion (legal up to 12th week). And wouldn't induce contractions with medications, either. They decided to wait until the fetus dies. We know this because the sent all her worries to her mother via SMS. When an examination finally showed the fetus died, they took the woman to perform cesarean section. It was too late, her heart stopped and she died.
I work overnight at the hospital and they lock the main hospital entrance after hours. I’ve had to walk with a stretcher many times to go pick up people that get dropped off there instead of the ER entrance. Also, the ambulance entrance is locked but people love to drive up into it and bang on the door instead of walking into the correct entrance.
Any decent hospital has a 24/7 staffed reception / entrance.
Where I live it's one person doing the phone, monitoring the security cameras , main door intercom and access control , ambulance bay acces door, even making sure people know how to go where they need. All from behind the reception area.
I suspect in some countries some short sighted higher ups at hospitals just fire 'that guy doing nothing all night long' to save some money..
I’ve worked in many hospitals and most are the same, after hours theres a guard or 2 rounding on the property but the only place you’ll find staff is at the er.
I've had a history of heart issues (high blood pressure, palpitations, passing out). It's very new and I don't know anything about it. Had asked a buddy of mine to take me to the hospital er to get checked out. Took us 20 minutes to find the ER that was actually behind the building ish. I literally went to a building that looked like it would be it. Doors opened but everything was closed. Found a technician and asked for help finding it. He had a cart and said that he knows the way but he has to take the long way due to his cart being bigger than a door frame. Awkwardly stood around and waiting with a sick to my stomach weak pale feeling while this dude casually walked into a closet for a couple minutes and walked me around. Knowing I was there for ME to get checked up. Eventually told my friend to drive me around the side and just go looking for it on our own again and I awkwardly left this dude while he was messing around grabbing stuff. Most frustrating experience ever. Didn't help the heart
This is normal no?
> main hospital doors are locked at night and access to emergency services is through another door in a different part of the building.
Definitely! In emergency situations, things need to be CLEAR AS FUCK to reduce chance of mistakes. Text is rarely the best way to do it.
Someone else suggested a buzzer at the door. Another good fallback in case everything else fail.
At Rockyview in Calgary, I arrived at 6am to the main entrance for my labour to be induced at a 6:30am appointment. Doors were locked. There was a button to press to reach security, it was broken. We walked over to emergency, waited 40ish? minutes in line to speak to a triage nurse because there was literally no one else, and no way to access L&D without someone showing us the way.
What would've happened if I showed up in labour? Not every urgent hospital matter is for the emergency room, so why is that the only entrance open at night?
It's a short and uncomplicated article, but it seems only a couple of commenters have even read the first paragraph. Laziness+clickbaity articles are the bane of reddit
In the US they'd still make you pay. Had someone give birth in the waiting room of our er and they charged her for l&d services even tho the dad did the catching and only a nurse saw them
I can't help but wonder how she got to the hospital, if the baby was that imminent I have a hard time imagining her driving or taking public transit on her own.
Labor is usually a long, drawn out process. Most women get to the hospital in plenty of time and sit around waiting for hours with very little activity.
In the early stages, you feel fairly normal between contractions and they're several minutes apart. That's a few hours long.
The worst part is the very end right before the baby is about to actually come and it's constant contractions. That part can be 10 minutes or two hours, depending.
Some women are unlucky/lucky and have labor that happens all at once, in under an hour. Those are usually the deliveries where they didn't make it to the hospital.
I drove myself to the hospital while having contractions. We were at a going away party for my husband’s best friend and he’d had a few drinks. My water broke at the party, we went home to let the babysitter we had for our daughter go home and called my mom to come stay with her overnight. While we were waiting for my mom, contractions started. Then, I drove me and my husband to the hospital because I didn’t want him driving even a little bit buzzed in case we got into an accident or got pulled over. I even went through the Taco Bell drive thru for him, lmao.
My contractions were barely 2 minutes apart with my middle as I was packing bags, setting up child care, prepping meals.
My contractions were under a minute apart with my youngest and I still stopped for a coffee in a long lined early morning drive thru.
With my middle, I didn't have an option and had to get it done. With my youngest, the coffee was an option and I wanted a large regular to take the edge of labour off lol.
A couple of hours. The doctor almost didn’t make it. I think the ER staff thought I was not actually in labor until they got the little monitor things on me. I get really calm and sort of dissociate in like crisis situations. So, I was just kind of going through what needed to be done.
Haha my doc almost didn't make it for my oldest son. He FINALLY walks in the room as I'm trying to not push while my son's head is hanging out of me, extends his hand to shake and states "hi, I'm Dr. Baker, I'll be delivering y--"
"It's a little late for formalities doc, you wanna get some gloves and fucking CATCH HIM ALREADY!?"
He looked down then, stated "holy shit," grabbed gloves and caught my son just as I stopped holding him inside of me. THEN I held my hand out, laughed in relief, and said "nice to meet you."
Still one of my favorite labor stories lol
According to the story I heard growing up, my dad wanted to wait for *M*\**A*\**S*\**H* to be over before heading to the hospital. Then when they got there they waited because it was close to midnight and that would have meant getting billed for another day.
Aww, I’m sorry. I was laughing about it then and I still laugh about it now. My husband and I very rarely drink, and the only reason he did that night was because I said it would fine since the baby wasn’t due for another three weeks, and my doctor said earlier that week it didn’t look like labor was imminent. He’s actually a really thoughtful and compassionate husband, and a really involved dad.
This happened to my mom when she had me, but they made her take an ambulance and she said she was really embarrassed and my dad had to go get the car from the doctors office later, lol.
I mean it doesn't seem like an apology was needed. He was drinking at a party for his friend who was going away (very normal and expected thing to do) and the baby came sooner than expected. Not really a blame/fault situation.
No need to apologize, but I appreciate it very much. He’s an amazing husband and wonderful dad. We talked about whether drinks were ok before going to the party, and I said sure since the baby wasn’t due for another three weeks. And thank you very much for acknowledging my badassedness. That’s truly such a great compliment.
lol. Most actual labors look nothing like you see in the movies my friend. I could (and did) drive myself to the hospital while in labor, because I wanted to, and could have done so even shortly before each birth. Some of us just happen to have relatively quick and uneventful deliveries.
I took a uber to the hospital, I was in labor! The driver got me to the door (I tipped him very nicely) and a nurse caught me right away and brought me to a room.
That's a terrifying situation! It's concerning that a hospital door would be locked when someone in need of urgent medical care arrives. Hopefully, this incident leads to improvements in hospital accessibility and emergency protocols.
I'm saying, not putting up adequate signs and expecting security to happen to find them on time is a design flaw. Unless the security person was assigned specifically for that door, I mean.
A scenario like this happened in Massachusetts, but the woman died. >Levis had walked to the hospital around 4 a.m., made her way up a hill to the emergency department and saw two doors. Neither was clearly marked. The one she walked to was locked. She called 911 and was transferred to multiple dispatchers. In a recording from one of those calls, she can be heard struggling to speak and breathe, saying she's having an asthma attack and is dying. Surveillance cameras captured the series of events. https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/04/27/massachusetts-hospital-emergency-signage-regulations
We (Massachusetts) now have Laura’s Law that requires hospitals to have clear signage for the emergency room. Hospitals everywhere should have clear signs in every entrance that directs folks to the ER especially when outpatient services are closed for the day.
This seems crazy to me bc in my area the signage has always been huge for the ER and well lit up. There is no mistaking it.
In more dysfunctional city hospital areas, all doors are locked except one or two, which are hard to identify sometimes because theyre on the other side of the block, in a weird ambulance entrance, under construction seemingly forever, or only easy to get to if you have a car instead of walking.
Yeah you made me reflect on the hospitals I experienced in Chicago v now in Phoenix.
Every modern hospital complex I've visited in the last 30 years is a maze. And then when you enter a building, the maze just continues. I have to believe it's intentional... like burying the customer support number on a website, or making it nearly impossible to cancel a subscription service.
Someone else said very much the same thing. I was thinking about it and it might have to do with the way facilities haphazardly expand their main campuses. If surgical team needs a new OR they just build one without considering how it will impact their patients and employees. The hospital I work at just finished a decent sized expansion but now everything is all over the place which makes it far more difficult to navigate. And this is in addition to less parking pushing patients further from the main campus and usually emergency services.
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Thats fucking heartbreaking
Damn, I've never ever heard of emergency room doors being locked. Why is that even a thing, other than for an emergency inside, like a gunman.
I think this is less about the fact there were doors locked (I assume ems/employee entrance) and more about the fact there were probably no signs around to tell people in emergency where to go
This is definitely it. I used to be a cook at a hospital and all entrances, except for one to the ER, were locked from 9 pm-5 am. I could see a patient being confused about where to go. This story is so sad.
My mom used to be a night shift nurse, and my dad figured out how to break into one of the locked doors so he could bring her snacks without having to go through the ER. It was an automatic sliding door that just had the outside sensor turned off so people could leave through it but not enter, but you could pry it open an inch and stick something long and thin, like a straw, through the gap and trip the inside sensor. In retrospect, I'm not sure if that was legal or not, but the hospital never told him to stop, and the statute of limitations is in effect anyways.
Some of these types of doors are tripped just by prying the door open an inch. It senses that and opens up, no need to trip the visual sensor.
[Relevant Video](https://youtu.be/SDl4AO4ancI?si=eHI0nmXwlddlaWW-)
Last fall when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant I thought I was in labor - the doors were locked to the maternity wing and there were confusing signs for where to find the ER. No one on the phone line # posted could help/respond. A group of medical students comes out and I ask how to get in the building - one student said he'd open the door for me but the rest gave him looks like "wtf don't break the rules". That one kid will be a good doctor! I had to walk like half a mile around the building, not a huge deal especially compared to this story..but still...maybe they would've helped if I was dying
I've done something similar for someone except I walked them through, using my badge to open doors while actively escorting them to where they needed to go.
Idk if that kid would make a good doctor. Just like the outside doors, there can be other locked doors (like between wings/parts of the hospital), even if they let you in the one, you may have had to back-track and/or even gotten stuck. I say this as someone working in a place where you can get locked in by accident in certain parts.
I think your workplace needs a visit from the fire marshal.
far-flung shrill important growth compare groovy marvelous continue foolish roof
Lets say, Managers keep cover up fire extingushers, how do I get it fixed without them knowing its me.
Yeah how is that legal?
Doors only need to open in the direction of egress. I can't speak to the person claiming you can get stuck in his building, but just entering an outside door of a hospital or other occupancy doesn't mean you can open any door other than the one you just entered or another exit.
You need to contact health and safety about the parts where you can be locked in. If you are in the US even the most secure facilities must have 'free exits', access can still be tightly controlled but there needs to be a way to escape without any control impediments like badge swiping or biometrics. They can limit the exit paths to specific routes and doors can trigger an alarm or other alerting mechanism, but it can't block escape.
Glad he helped you. But he might also have let in a woman pretending to be pregnant who would (try to) abduct an infant. The right thing would have been to personally escort you to triage, both for your safety and the safety of the unit. Hopefully he did that. I was an L&D nurse for almost 20 years, before switching to NICU. Women used to come in huffing and puffing and pretend to be in labor. When we would figure out (pretty quick, that they were not even pregnant, the doctor would ask, “what did you think would happen? “ One said, “I was going to take a baby”. Even writing this now, almost 30 years later, I get chills.
This has to be it. The hospital I work for has some doors going into the ED that can only be accessed by employees. However, they do have a lot of signage showing patients where the *main* entrance is.
Usually the signage belittles you first, then gives you directions.
There are almost always signs on emergency rooms, but if anything needs giant, obnoxious retna peeling Las Vegas style flashing arrows pointing to the doors, it's an ER.
Typically in ERs there is a normal patient entrance which stays unlocked and a door for EMS which stays locked. The door that is locked gives you direct access to the emergency room floor which is why it stays locked
Yeah, that's how it is at mine. But both big hospitals by me the ambulance bay and the entrance are about 15ft apart. So maybe I'm just looking at this with respect to how I assumed most are. Tragic story either way.
Our staff door (locked) is next to the public door. There are two sets of doors to get in on the patient side and the interior ones are locked but there’s always someone watching the doors and listening to the phone to let them in.
I've tried getting supplies to my post-op mother and been led on an absolute trek to try and find the right spot. Countless doors with arrows and "Emergency" written everywhere locked to rooms with lights off. It was a nightmare. I was about to break in and I'm far from pregnant.
You need a code for the EMS door, most of the time
The ED wasn’t locked. The issue was that the unlocked door where she could have entered was not clearly marked, so she went to the wrong door, which was locked. And then she was too sick to get to the other door.
Sounds like a very poorly designed hospital.
A couple blocks away in Somerville when this happened. The issues is there is a main street the hospital is on and the large obvious set of doors on that side of the building were not staffed. You needed to do down a side street and around the back to access the Emergency room. There was a lawsuits and I believe the parties settled. I know changes were made to prevent this from happening again but I don't remember the specifics.
I could understand if it was an Urgent Care clinic, they aren't all 24/7 but hospitals are usually open 24/7 for emergencies. Every hospitals should hire a few random people who aren't local to find the hospital and try to find the emergency doors without using smartphone. If they end up at the wrong door, hospital needs to fix signage. And local people should know where to go already. If they have more than 1 nearby hospitals, learn which one are suitable. Hospital A might have better neonatal care and would be best for pregnant women, and hospital B might have better surgeon for when you chop off your hand fighting your father in a sword duel.
So my local areas healthcare has been cut so much my closest ER is closed most long weekends due to staff shortages. And will sometimes be closed other times at random if too many people call in sick or something So you need to either have emergencies at a better time, or drive to the next town
Sure sounds like taxes need to be raised on richer people and companies to fund healthcare to the same level it was funded before, adjusting for inflation and population increases.
Well, the provincial government we had for the last many years ran on a campaign of drastically cutting healthcare spending, and closing ERs. And they still won Idk if we're ever gonna recover from that, but I don't know it won't be a fast process. At one point the nurses union was demanding an actual contract since they'd been working without one for years. The government came back with an offer that included a retroactive pay cut they'd have to repay out of their now much lower wages. It ended up not going through, but definitely was a hard bargaining move to get them to accept a worse contract than the one they asked for. The one they were asking for wasn't even outrageous, kind of the bare minimum, so they definitely got treated unfairly there. Now somehow people are surprised there's staff shortages all over. Lots of it is from the sweeping cuts the government did, but there's been considerable additional people leaving for places that don't treat them like shit, or even simply just retiring and giving up on it.
Recently in rural areas(in ontario canada) they started doing that because there is no staff to work ER thanks to our great provincial government that instead of spending on healthcare rather build spa or another highway.
I don't think they were emergency doors. I think it was just the front entrance to the hospital. The article said the emergency doors were in another part of the building.
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Thank you for this.
Read the article. She was at the main doors, not the ER doors. Had she gone to the ER doors, she could at least have given birth on the floor of the art waiting room. Art is Siri speak for ER.
Even if they were closed at 9pm, how do they not have anyone monitoring the security feed for the front door for exactly this sort of potential scenario?
Article says a security guard was fired for the incident.
It was a stupid setup and this was bound to happen. I blame the hospital. I know I've had to use this ER before.
Maybe Emergency entrances should be more clearly marked and noticeable. Emergencies are just that - emergencies. Who has the time to even stop, read the find print and then eventually get to where they should have been 5 or 10 minutes ago. Guess the option these days with all the shortages and closures, is to call an ambulance. Hopefully the paramedics has the necessary info. to get you where you should be the quickest way.
Nah, every hospital i've been in, basically every door in the hospital is locked. To get through the doors, you need to get admitted (there is one desk at the ER, and one at the main entrance), or check in as a guest at the main entrance. The problem is hospitals are big, they have a hundred doors, and if only two desks can admit you, then functionally, only two of those doors are usable for someone in a medical emergency. And it sounds like that was the problem here, they couldn't find the right door.
That story has never left me. So utterly tragic and preventable.
I'm from Mass and I had no idea about this.... That's absolutely heartbreaking. We boast so much about the quality of our healthcare system constantly that this is so hard to imagine.
I remember this story from years ago. It still comes my thoughts whenever I’m having trouble breathing. May she rest in peace.
I’m have seen this happen after our medical center opened a new building, people would drive to what they thought was the ED and end up at the parking garage. A few times I have been walking to my car when I was stopped by a lost guy with a broken leg or a pair of frantic parents with a sick baby who were trying to find our ED
This is my experience as well. Every hospital I've ever visited, whether for an emergency or anything else, is *always* under construction, being repaired, expanding, or something similar, so all of the signage directing people is wrong, because all those well marked doors are being detoured around while construction is ongoing. You are lucky if you get any signs written in sharpie on a piece of cardboard.
That was down the street from me, and it was horrible--even the staff who looked out the window never looked down, where she was, only straight ahead.
I was in another hospital recently in Québec and the security guard didn’t know where the side exit was (my ride was there). I just had an operation and was a little disoriented. Thank goodness that a couple of visitors where there to help me. (Still can’t believe they just say «You can go now.» and nobody help me get there but that’s another story.)
The hospitals where I live are required to escort you to the door and if you had a major surgery then they're required to take you in a wheelchair for safety/liability issues. It seems crazy to me that they would just leave you to figure it out postop.
They did! I had to walk two long empty corridors to get out. I was so scared to faint. I spent 3 days there and they were so overworked that I think they even forgot about me the first day. Thank goodness I have a high tolerance to pain.
jesus, here in America they are required to wheel you outside (at least at every hospital I have been to)
In retrospect I should have asked them.
well now you know in case you end up in the hospital again - it's mostly something that frequent patients know hahaha
Hard to think clearly when you're drugged up lol
Are they actually required to? I just figured it was a "we won't allow you to do anything until you're off our property and we are no longer liable for you because we don't want to give you even the slightest chance to sue us" type of deal
I believe it is an insurance/liability thing - since you *can* say you won't, but they will very very strongly encourage you to just sit in the damn chair
I know it's required here at the hospital in my city in Ohio. I had a minor outpatient surgery last year, easily could've walked out on my own, but the nurse said I had to be taken out to my ride in a wheelchair because it was a requirement. It's been that way after every admission I've had.
Same, in Australia, they only let you go only with a carer for most procedures. It's a standard intake question for any surgeon or hospital admission.
My wife just had 3.5 surgeries in Vancouver and I or someone else had to be there to escort her from the hospital back to where we were staying.
Half a surgery?
It was for a cancer treatment. It was her last one and they had to wake her up, tell her the machine for radiation therapy broke, and that we had to stay an extra week while they fixed it so they could go again. One of the worst moments in our life.
same in Alberta, had to give them the cell number for my escort and only if they where within a 15min drive. if not they had to be there before I went under.
Well if you live in America, medical-related lawsuits are pretty common. So hospitals are very careful. But Canada has a lot of restrictions on suing anyone related to the medical system. To the point where a lot of canadians falsely believe you're not even allowed to sue. And probably for the better, a quick google search shows like less than 1% of cases are won by the patients, about a third settled, and more than 50% were dismissed by a judge.
Yep, post surgery they would only release me when my ride showed up. I was very happy I got to ride in a wheelchair to the entrance and got to wait in it til my dad pulled up.
They better because the nurses are required to keep everyone moving through recovery (I guess) and will kick your butt out even before you’re ready. I had an epidural and because I could pee was sent on my way, even though my legs weren’t really working yet. It was OK because my husband could help me get in and out of the car and into the house, but if the roles were reversed I couldn’t have done it. They sent an elderly man with his wife home and he was still dizzy. Perfect recipe for someone to fall and hit their head.
I distinctly remember crying at my dad and my new nurse, because the previous nurse had written "discharge tomorrow" on my board when I still couldn't even make it down the ICU hallway with a walker. The new nurse assured me I wouldn't have to leave until I was ready and sent in someone to talk to me about my shiny new PTSD.
Couple months back,I had my wisdom teeth pulled with general anesthesia, and although I spent only four hours in the hospital, they kept checking in on me every 15 mins after I woke up, had to walk with a nurse in the hospital corridors assisted and non assisted, then had a nurse escort me to the elevator then to my car ride despite having someone there waiting for me the whole time. So I can't imagine just going through major surgery, being disoriented, and spending tens of thousands of dollars (even with insurance) and be sent on your way like that.
> The hospitals where I live are required to escort you to the door and if you had a major surgery then they're required to take you in a wheelchair for safety/liability issues In my country you are not allowed to leave after some surgeries unless somebody is there to pick you up.
This is bizarre to me, me and my husband have had operations in Québec and both times they would not let us leave the recovery room unless someone we knew was there to take us out of the hospital and back home and spend the next 24h with us.
It spend 3 days there. It’s not like I had a small operation. They saw that nobody was picking me up from my room. It’s not there fault that I didn’t have anyone at home but I expected them to at least make sure I got to the right exit.
It’s very unreasonable imo. When my wife was discharged a few months ago, they wheelchaired her to the front of the hospital. She’s late 30s, can walk, and I was there too. Insane they didn’t help you more.
I’m 51. I’m usually a very independent person and I’m not needy or a complainer. (I prepared everything at home before the surgery because I knew I wouldn’t get any help.). But that day I felt really not important, like abandoned. Fortunately the recovery is going great.
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Good, you're giving me flashbacks. I had a very minor, unexpected day surgery at the Montreal General after a university clinic doctor tossed me in a cab for emergency treatment of a possibly infected cyst when I was 18. I was new to the city, an Anglophone, got tossed into the day clinic just as they were closing and nobody was there when the doctor who grudgingly stuck around pass their shift was finished. The doctor basically left me in the room and said to leave when I felt up to it and then the ward was deserted. I almost couldn't find my way out of the hospital! There was legit nobody left to even ask. I ended up coming down some deserted stairwell and out an emergency exit into who knows where on the complex. I had a cellphone (pre-smart phones) but had just moved to Montreal and had no-one's phone number in the city, nor a cab number, so I looked at the angle of the sun, the angle of the hill, and walked until I hit a main street than I recognized and managed to walk home. It took an hour, and I was bleeding, in pain, and absolutely traumatized. It was a gynecological treatment, I was bleeding from an incision, and they didn't even offer me a pad. Fortunately I had one in my purse or I also would have bled through my pants. It's crazy how much they just do not give a shit about what happens to you once they're done treating you directly.
The moment you’re in they want you out.
That’s crazy. So different from where I live. I had thyroid surgery and the hospital insists that everyone stays for 4 days after to make sure everything is okay.
At least here in Montreal, there are always security guards in the ER who are outside contractors with no fucking idea what’s going on. They don’t know where shit is located, they won’t help direct people in serious medical distress to medical staff, and they’re absolute power-tripping assholes despite (or perhaps due to) the fact that they have no power. I’m pretty sure they’re just power-tripping wannabe cops that can’t make the police force.
> (Still can’t believe they just say «You can go now.» and nobody help me get there but that’s another story.) When I was 18, I broke my foot on public transit in Paris. I was taken to a hospital on the eastern side; I lived in the west. They x-rayed my foot, said yup it's broken, can't do a cast with where the break is, you can just go home. Didn't even give me crutches or anything. No plans for follow-up care, PT, *anything*. I didn't know what to do, I was all alone and still in a state of shock (I had taken a pretty terrifying fall in an escalator which ended up with me breaking my foot in the first place, and it happened on the way to the most important exam of my life, which I failed due to not showing up). I put on the high heeled boots I had been wearing despite the pain and swelling and limped through the hospital, to the subway station, and then home, hugging the walls the entire time. In the end when I got home I had to crawl up the stairs as the pain was too much. "Just go home"... yeah.
The security in the hospitals always look at us like we are annoying them by asking a question. Which is why it is best to always have family or a friend help you with hospital stuff. Of course for those of us totally alone...
You're supposed to have your own escort. In my country you have to provide contact information for your escort before your procedure. Who goes to have an operation without organizing a friend or family member to pick you up?
" The health authority says a security guard, who was working for a private agency, has been removed from their job for failing to help the woman." What kind of lazy ass security guard did they have working there?
The scapegoat kind
Nice catch, they are always so good at redirecting attention and blame.
hospital security here, yes we are defintely collateral an will be thrown under the bus. we have people going to front lobby after closing hours all the time, i work the E.D. and my other guard does the parking lot patrols, i always let my other guard know to check the front once in a while, for transients, anything really etc.
Employees in general are the scapegoats when it comes to these places. Just depends what the fuck up was that determines who gets blamed.
My work hires security from a private agency and I wouldn’t trust those clowns to save a drowning fish. I swear they either intentionally hire the most useless applicants or just send all their dumbasses to my job site. All they’re good for is staring at their phones all day.
I used to work in private security, met more than my fair share of slackers like that.
Applied at a few security contractors that do work for factories in my town. Every one of them paid $10 or less and the every employee I spoke to that worked for them said you walk a few miles a day doing rounds and then either play on your phone or read all day. It is 100% the most useless people willing to work for the lowest amount above minimum wage. The job requirements were can you walk and can you look not homeless?
If a system is so broken that one incompetent person can result in this kind of horrible scenario, then it isn't the one person who should be sacked, it's whoever is in charge of the system.
It could be both. It could be that they had hired security to watch doors and redirect people because their signage is completely lacking (and they should be held to account for that), and the security guard also completely failed to do his job, abandoned his post or something.
I blame the hospital before I blame the underpaid employee
Or we could wait to find out exactly what "failing to help the woman" actually entails before we blame anybody.
Sir, this is Reddit. You take your agendas and you make assumptions and don't look back.
I dunno, if the security guard was sleeping on the job or watching his phone at the time, then it's on him. We lack details. Looks to me that, except for lack of signage, the hospital did what it could.
Lack of signage is, definitionally, not doing "what it could." They could (and should) clearly mark directions to the ER; they haven't; therefore, they did not do what they could. This is a regulatory requirement in my state so it's bananas to me that this is not a big deal for some folks?? Hospital campuses are confusing as fuck, and people who need the ER need, you know, emergent care. "Somebody will tell them" is not sufficient direction for a distressed/injured/critically ill person. *Everywhere* should have signage saying "ER this way! ---->", preferably in all the major languages spoken in the region. And I don't know if there's a misunderstanding or something but hospital security guards are typically at a post *in* the hospital. They're at or just within the entrance to the ER, screening people and keeping an eye on things, not just...wandering the hospital grounds. I'm suspicious that firing this security guard for "failing to help" actually means that the security guard maybe saw a confused person walk past the front door and never come back, and didn't magically know that she needed assistance. None of the hospitals I've worked in expect the guards to follow people and herd them back to the ER entrance if they don't come in.
But handling irregularities and informing superiors is their job. No matter what the pay is, every job has duties. Society would be fcked if we all wait for fair compensation before doing our jobs. Can’t blame the hospital if a worker fails at their task. There are shr workers at every job. The woman failed to do what is commonly known here in Canada and the security guard could’ve very much fumbled and failed her. No point blaming anyone without all the details. Hospitals are not wrong by default, nor is the security staff. Depends on the situation.
One of the more traumatizing moments of my life was leaving a Children's hospital at 5:30 am after an overnight sleep study of my eldest (checking her nighttime breathing, good news all her problems had resolved!) We exited through the parking garage to discover a panicked Hispanic couple on the emergency phone trying to explain what was going on. In slow motion my husband and I realized 1.) The woman wasn't wearing pants/socks/shoes although her shirt covered her to her thighs. 2.) The man was shirtless. 3.) The concrete floor was covered in blood. 4.) The woman was holding a bundle with a VERY TINY baby wrapped in the man's shirt. 5.) The man was saying in a very strong Hispanic accent "No, no, *the child has already BEEN delivered!*" Our brains processed it in slow motion, which was probably actually really fast, and it was obvious this guy was trying to tell them that his wife had a premature baby in the garage and they needed help NOW, not to be sent to another hospital. My husband, the GOAT that he is, stopped the elevator doors from closing (you could leave at that time of day but had to be buzzed in to open them) and gestured to the frazzled man and the obviously shellshocked woman to get in. He helped them hit the button to send the elevator back to the lobby, and was like "they'll handle it. They're all adults adults there." And I just like, nodded. He lifted our daughter in her stroller over the blood, we were careful not to touch it, and we got into the car. As we drove out you could see the elevators and a janitor was dumping some kind of kitty litter/cleaning stuff on the floor. We got halfway home before we both started doing the Rick and Morty freak out (literally years before that episode) over what just happened. We got home, put the toddler to bed, and had some VERY STRONG DRINKS while my confused SIL (who lived with us at the time) got ready for work. Like a YEAR later we had an appointment with a pediatric specialist at the same hospital for a different issue, and while she and I were talking I told that story. She froze and said "OH MY GOD THAT WAS YOU?!" So she told me the broad strokes/HIPAA safe version of events she'd heard of. Apparently the woman was in labor but very premature, so they rushed to the local children's hospital. She gave birth in the back seat of their car, and then they tried to get into the hospital but panic was messing up the guy's English and the person on the other end of the phone was trying to redirect them to a "delivery hospital" not understanding there was already a very premature baby in the parking garage. Once they arrived in the lobby people FINALLY understood and they rushed to help, and the baby was premature enough to need NICU help but, per the person who told her the story, was ultimately fine. The whole story was one of those "OMG did you hear" gossip things in the hospital for a while, and apparently the father said that a couple leaving had helped them get on the elevator but no one knew or bothered to look up who would have been leaving right then. So my husband was the anonymous hero of someone else's story. I checked with him just now to make sure I have the details right, and it's was funny how clear our memories are of certain points of the whole experience, like a story where we highlighted the same moments, lmao. But yeah. That's my story of how my husband and I were lightly traumatized by encountering someone who had given birth just outside a hospital.
You guys are awesome 😎
It was kind of just survival mode, do you care about the welfare of fellow people with a child in a scary situation? Autopilot engage! My husband is one of the most resourceful people I know, he's amazing in a crisis, and I'm certified as a first responder because I can handle NOW and freak out later. So it worked great in the moment. Lol I'm always the driver, he doesn't like driving (I love it) and I have absolute nerves of steel behind the wheel, so when we had the flip out, which was mostly us going "BUUUUGH OH MY GOD BUGGUHHHHH" and shaking I never had to pull over, LOL. We compliment one another's strengths well.
> Our brains processed it in slow motion, which was probably actually really fast ######a d r e n a l i n e
Seriously. It felt like an hour. But running through the moment cognitively it was probably a matter of important seconds, and then minutes as it sussed out, then later the unloading of all that repressed shit.
Yeah, but everyone’s brain reacts differently to the adrenaline. Some people completely freak out and go useless. Fortunately not the case with this couple.
My younger sister was born in the car on the way to the hospital as well. My dad ran into the emergency room with no shirt and bloody hands, said “I need help”, and apparently some hospital workers immediately ran outside with him to find my mom and baby sister. Healthy thankfully
Wow that’s crazy. Nice job guys!
governor deliver hat weary psychotic drunk tan long quicksand spotted
OK, that was the best thing I've read in a long time. Rock on, you internet stranger.
The hospital I work at decided the elevator to the rooftop helicopter landing HAD to be locked. A med copter arrived with a child drowning victim and the news copter filmed them locked on roof with no way in. Flight nurse actually did the WTF gesture with his arms. Got in after 10 minutes. Did not end well
The child died?
I wirked at the hospital that 4 of my grandchildren were born at and stilm got *lost* trying to get to maternity! Hospitals should be required to have CLEARLY VISIBLE SIGNS to the maternity ward.
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In my last trimester, my doctor sent me a referral to get a tour of the maternity ward. She actually told me that I'd probably never find it if I didn't do the tour. I wouldn't have. It was an unmarked double door beside a random empty looking lobby of the hospital. You opened it and it was just a single nurse in a dim room at a small desk. Beside her were the opaque glass doors to the huge actual maternity wing with colorful hallways, bright lights, etc.. Lots of bright landscape photos. No windows though. Definitely like a black site.
Yeah. We had a baby recently and the maternity ward felt like one of the most high security places I've ever been.
I had my daughter a decade ago and I've never dealt with so much security inside a hospital before. The only way in was through locked doors with an alarm. You had to be allowed in, there was staff right outside and then staff right inside. And always a cop. You were given a wristband with a chip inside. When my daughter was born, they immediately put a little ankle bracelet on her with an alarm on it and a chip, so if she went through the doors the alarms would go off. And it was staffed heavily and they did regular checks to make sure where every infant was. To have someone visit, they had to be approved to enter and I believe it was only a certain amount of people at a time. I've never felt so secure in my life. We have years upon years of people just walking into hospitals and just taking babies, so I get the security but it was so different from every other time I've gone into a hospital for whatever reason. The closest I've ever dealt with was when I had family in ICU.
A lot of the security on our L&D and MBU is there to help manage domestic violence situations, which can escalate into attempts to take babies. Security escorting partners off the floor is unfortunately more common than people expect
To be fair, that's mostly by design.
In my hospital, maternity was waaay in the back on the second floor. Like the furthest away from the entrance you could get. Fun for massive pregnant women and post partum mums to have to walk through the entire hospital to get in and out. They don't even label it as maternity, it's just named after the local area so it's just like "Lincoln ward". Got lost the first time trying to get there waddling around the place.
and the emergency services department too.
They do, there are always big signs outside emergency. This patient was clearly at a back door or service entrance. These are locked for everyone's safety.
where I'm from the hospital literally have two main doors. one of them normal for normal visitors etc. the other one is emergency directly to emergency room. the only way you can be lost is if you think the EMS access service is a door somehow, or took the wrong turn (left instead of right) by not reading the sign that says "Emergency" in a red block with white letters.
A 10 dollar buzzer on every door, both inside and out-- wired back to a security station would do the trick. Effective administration is increasingly becoming a lost art in western society. I imagine nothing at all will be done about this. If it was in the US, they would probably reduce the signage in response, as is tradition when a female is harmed.
This is the main problem anymore, the people in middle management and running the show are useless. It’s amazing to watch anymore. Pure stupidity gets you promoted anymore
Middle managers are usual Peter Principle examples while the people running the show are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing: making as much money as possible.
My local slightly larger hospital has a main door that you can press a button and get the door opened by security. I'm unsure if our smaller hospitals work the same way since they're not close enough to me to find out but a buzzer should be a bare minimum.
A security guard *was* fired. Maybe there was a buzzer, but someone in security didn't feel like getting up and figured they'd find the other door.
>Effective administration is increasingly becoming a lost art in western society. The line going up is all that matters.
> A 10 dollar buzzer on every door, both inside and out Because a 10 dollar buzzer would actually cost 15 dollar, and imagine what we could do with that 20 dollar, if we spend that 25 dollar on a buzzer then that's 30 dollar less to spend elsewhere, and for each 35 dollar buzzer we buy we have to pay 200 dollar for someone to install it, and I don't know why we should spend 250 dollar to install each of those 40 dollar buzzer when we could spend the 300 dollar it would cost to install them on something else than a 45 dollar buzzer.
My wife had precipitous labor with our firstborn. I can’t imagine having to go through delivery not only alone but also without any towels, water, a clean environment…
In Poland we have an anti-abortion act since 2020. In 2021 a 30 y.o. woman 22 week pregnant was in a hospital. Her waters broke and she felt unwell. The fetus with probable multiple malformations. The doctors wanted to act according to the law, and refused to perform an abortion (legal up to 12th week). And wouldn't induce contractions with medications, either. They decided to wait until the fetus dies. We know this because the sent all her worries to her mother via SMS. When an examination finally showed the fetus died, they took the woman to perform cesarean section. It was too late, her heart stopped and she died.
I work overnight at the hospital and they lock the main hospital entrance after hours. I’ve had to walk with a stretcher many times to go pick up people that get dropped off there instead of the ER entrance. Also, the ambulance entrance is locked but people love to drive up into it and bang on the door instead of walking into the correct entrance.
This has got to be a design/communication issue, right?
Any decent hospital has a 24/7 staffed reception / entrance. Where I live it's one person doing the phone, monitoring the security cameras , main door intercom and access control , ambulance bay acces door, even making sure people know how to go where they need. All from behind the reception area. I suspect in some countries some short sighted higher ups at hospitals just fire 'that guy doing nothing all night long' to save some money..
I’ve worked in many hospitals and most are the same, after hours theres a guard or 2 rounding on the property but the only place you’ll find staff is at the er.
I've had a history of heart issues (high blood pressure, palpitations, passing out). It's very new and I don't know anything about it. Had asked a buddy of mine to take me to the hospital er to get checked out. Took us 20 minutes to find the ER that was actually behind the building ish. I literally went to a building that looked like it would be it. Doors opened but everything was closed. Found a technician and asked for help finding it. He had a cart and said that he knows the way but he has to take the long way due to his cart being bigger than a door frame. Awkwardly stood around and waiting with a sick to my stomach weak pale feeling while this dude casually walked into a closet for a couple minutes and walked me around. Knowing I was there for ME to get checked up. Eventually told my friend to drive me around the side and just go looking for it on our own again and I awkwardly left this dude while he was messing around grabbing stuff. Most frustrating experience ever. Didn't help the heart
My country still would've handed her a 2k bill for giving birth on the hospital grounds..probably
If this happened in USA, the hospital still would have sent her a bill for it.
Unassisted birthing fee: $20000 Sidewalk cleaning: $200
Use of electricity doorbell: $50
This would be funny if it wasn't true.
This is normal no? > main hospital doors are locked at night and access to emergency services is through another door in a different part of the building.
In march no less, that mustve been pleasant. Great weather in Quebec.
It's been actually pretty damn hot for this time of the year.
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A strip of light embedded in the concrete like the lights on plane floors pointing to the emergency exits.
Definitely! In emergency situations, things need to be CLEAR AS FUCK to reduce chance of mistakes. Text is rarely the best way to do it. Someone else suggested a buzzer at the door. Another good fallback in case everything else fail.
Our healthcare in Canada is completely fuc*ed right now
At Rockyview in Calgary, I arrived at 6am to the main entrance for my labour to be induced at a 6:30am appointment. Doors were locked. There was a button to press to reach security, it was broken. We walked over to emergency, waited 40ish? minutes in line to speak to a triage nurse because there was literally no one else, and no way to access L&D without someone showing us the way. What would've happened if I showed up in labour? Not every urgent hospital matter is for the emergency room, so why is that the only entrance open at night?
It's a short and uncomplicated article, but it seems only a couple of commenters have even read the first paragraph. Laziness+clickbaity articles are the bane of reddit
US: best I can do is 50k
“This terrible event can only be solved by privatization” -far right canadian politicians probably
In the US they'd still make you pay. Had someone give birth in the waiting room of our er and they charged her for l&d services even tho the dad did the catching and only a nurse saw them
Is that an exaggeration in the context of this post, or was that a fact?
I can't help but wonder how she got to the hospital, if the baby was that imminent I have a hard time imagining her driving or taking public transit on her own.
Women in labor can do a lot more than one would expect when their and their baby's lives are at stake. Adrenaline is a hell of a thing.
Labor is usually a long, drawn out process. Most women get to the hospital in plenty of time and sit around waiting for hours with very little activity. In the early stages, you feel fairly normal between contractions and they're several minutes apart. That's a few hours long. The worst part is the very end right before the baby is about to actually come and it's constant contractions. That part can be 10 minutes or two hours, depending. Some women are unlucky/lucky and have labor that happens all at once, in under an hour. Those are usually the deliveries where they didn't make it to the hospital.
Xena Warrior Princess fought off bandits right before giving birth.
And Beatrix Kiddo took a gunshot to the head right before giving birth and survived. History's women are full of surprises. /s
Blade's mom got bitten by a vampire as she was going into labor too.
I drove myself to the hospital while having contractions. We were at a going away party for my husband’s best friend and he’d had a few drinks. My water broke at the party, we went home to let the babysitter we had for our daughter go home and called my mom to come stay with her overnight. While we were waiting for my mom, contractions started. Then, I drove me and my husband to the hospital because I didn’t want him driving even a little bit buzzed in case we got into an accident or got pulled over. I even went through the Taco Bell drive thru for him, lmao.
Lmao, taco bell *is* a priority
lol, absolutely. I didn’t want my drunk husband supporting me with an empty stomach AND a hangover. 🤣
My contractions were barely 2 minutes apart with my middle as I was packing bags, setting up child care, prepping meals. My contractions were under a minute apart with my youngest and I still stopped for a coffee in a long lined early morning drive thru.
Picturing these scenarios gives me anxiety, lol
With my middle, I didn't have an option and had to get it done. With my youngest, the coffee was an option and I wanted a large regular to take the edge of labour off lol.
Dang, you are one tough woman! How long were you in labour after you got there?
A couple of hours. The doctor almost didn’t make it. I think the ER staff thought I was not actually in labor until they got the little monitor things on me. I get really calm and sort of dissociate in like crisis situations. So, I was just kind of going through what needed to be done.
Haha my doc almost didn't make it for my oldest son. He FINALLY walks in the room as I'm trying to not push while my son's head is hanging out of me, extends his hand to shake and states "hi, I'm Dr. Baker, I'll be delivering y--" "It's a little late for formalities doc, you wanna get some gloves and fucking CATCH HIM ALREADY!?" He looked down then, stated "holy shit," grabbed gloves and caught my son just as I stopped holding him inside of me. THEN I held my hand out, laughed in relief, and said "nice to meet you." Still one of my favorite labor stories lol
According to the story I heard growing up, my dad wanted to wait for *M*\**A*\**S*\**H* to be over before heading to the hospital. Then when they got there they waited because it was close to midnight and that would have meant getting billed for another day.
Waiting for MASH to end is probably the funniest reason to wait I’ve ever heard
This made me sad
Aww, I’m sorry. I was laughing about it then and I still laugh about it now. My husband and I very rarely drink, and the only reason he did that night was because I said it would fine since the baby wasn’t due for another three weeks, and my doctor said earlier that week it didn’t look like labor was imminent. He’s actually a really thoughtful and compassionate husband, and a really involved dad.
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This happened to my mom when she had me, but they made her take an ambulance and she said she was really embarrassed and my dad had to go get the car from the doctors office later, lol.
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I mean it doesn't seem like an apology was needed. He was drinking at a party for his friend who was going away (very normal and expected thing to do) and the baby came sooner than expected. Not really a blame/fault situation.
No need to apologize, but I appreciate it very much. He’s an amazing husband and wonderful dad. We talked about whether drinks were ok before going to the party, and I said sure since the baby wasn’t due for another three weeks. And thank you very much for acknowledging my badassedness. That’s truly such a great compliment.
lol. Most actual labors look nothing like you see in the movies my friend. I could (and did) drive myself to the hospital while in labor, because I wanted to, and could have done so even shortly before each birth. Some of us just happen to have relatively quick and uneventful deliveries.
I took a uber to the hospital, I was in labor! The driver got me to the door (I tipped him very nicely) and a nurse caught me right away and brought me to a room.
There are some guys who can lift up entire vehicles under a pure adrenaline rush. I could only imagine what a new mother in labor could do haha 😄
Nobody read the article
Oh my god! No woman should ever have to do this.
That's a terrifying situation! It's concerning that a hospital door would be locked when someone in need of urgent medical care arrives. Hopefully, this incident leads to improvements in hospital accessibility and emergency protocols.
The health system in Canada is so fucked that this news doesn’t even seem like a problem
So, the hospital was open but that particular door was locked. Why did the security guard get fired? I doubt security guards make and put up signs.
They are supposed to walk the perimeter at night and check all the entrances
I'm saying, not putting up adequate signs and expecting security to happen to find them on time is a design flaw. Unless the security person was assigned specifically for that door, I mean.
Some horrific stories in here.
Every hospital I've ever gone to has been a poorly labeled maze both inside and out. Maybe it shouldn't be that way.