Blog 6 "The Woman who died in the Waiting Room" CATW Practice 2

The Health System in the United States

            It is well known that the health system in the United States has many failures and is in decadence. A woman died in the waiting room of a Brooklyn hospital. According to the passage taken from “The Woman who Died in the waiting Room”, where Jeneen Interlandi stated how this unfortunate case happened and how she agonies sitting in a chair for twenty minutes being watched for few members of the staff of the institution who did nothing to help the poor woman. I do not feel any surprise in front of this case, I am sure this is happening every day in many clinics and hospital of this big Country.

            I almost died when I was delivering my baby in the Elmhurst Hospital of Queens, NY, where I had been checked for the last 5 months before my due date, therefore they knew that I was a high risk pregnant woman and that I needed to get a proper treatment and care. But instead they left me by myself in a room for the whole night while I was bleeding and painful without a nurse or doctor who could give the order that a C-section was needed. They kept me in that room until the next day. A friend of mine came to the hospital and alarmed them after she saw my situation. She told them that I was not an illegal person, that my husband was in the USA Army and that this issue could finish in the close of the hospital, if I die or my baby. So they immediately took me to the surgery room and did the C-Section to me.

            In the article I read says that the illegals and poor are the most affected and it is true. I went to the Elmhurst Hospital because many people there speak Spanish and, then I was not able to speak English. At the beginner of my pregnancy I went to the Manhattan Physician Center where I was supposed to go with my insurance and the difference was enormous. It was so clean and no too crowded, obviously due to the fact that not many people can have access to this services, therefore, the majority have to go where is “free” or accessible for them. But it this fear or equal?

            On February 2^nd, 2009 I could have died if my friend wouldn’t come and claimed the proper care for me. That is how I learned that in this country you must fight for be professional and learn English because if we were informed and able to speak English, I would be treated in a good health institution where I luckily would have the possibility of going, and I still wonder what is the danger and risk of the people who never could go to a good health service institution, what will be their destiny?

            The services of health in the United States needs to be fixed to the point that everybody can have equality in the service, because without a good health no one  could be hardworking and productive and at the end the country will lost its wealthy and power.