911 Calls Ignored for Woman Dying in ER

Dispatchers rejected two 911 calls to help a woman who lay dying on the floor of a Los Angeles hospital emergency room lobby.

Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, had been taken May 9 to Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital for treatment of what the county coroner later determined was a perforated bowel. She waited 45 minutes, without treatment, before she died, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

During that time, both her boyfriend and another caller dialed 911 and pleaded for help because the King-Harbor staff was ignoring Rodriguez, audio recordings of the 911 calls show.

My wife is dying and the nurses don’t want to help her out, Jose Prado, Rodriguez’s boyfriend, told a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher through an interpreter.

The dispatcher urged Prado to contact a doctor or nurse, the newspaper said.

A few minutes later, an unidentified woman — possibly another patient — reached another dispatcher. During a 2 1/2-minute call, the two debated whether it was a true emergency but no help was sent.

The coroner ruled the woman’s condition might have been treatable if discovered sooner, the Times said.

Video from an ER camera showed staff members and patients standing by as a janitor cleaned the floor around Rodriguez, who was buried Tuesday in Tehachapi, Calif.