Illinois Woman's ER Wait Death Ruled Homicide

Sept. 17, 2006 — -- In July, forty-nine-year old Beatrice Vance arrived in the Vista Medical Center Emergency Room in Lake County, Ill., complaining of nausea, shortness of breath and chest pains.

A nurse saw her briefly and told her to wait. But two hours later, when her name was finally called, the staff found Vance slumped in a chair, already dead.

"Ms. Vance had the classic symptoms of a heart attack," said Dr. Richard Keller, coroner of Lake County, Ill. "She should have been in the emergency department much quicker and received the care that we have in modern medicine."

In a startling decision, a coroner's jury investigating the case ruled that her death was a homicide, which opens the door for criminal prosecution.

"The definition of homicide that I give to the jury is either a willful and wanton act or recklessness on the part of someone, whether that's by their actions or by their inactions," Keller said. "Certainly, by that definition, this is a homicide."

The hospital is not commenting on the ruling.

But nationwide, long waits at the emergency room have become commonplace. The average wait is now nearly four hours.

"The number of uninsured are rising in this country, and ERs are closing everywhere," Dr. Leigh Vinocur of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "So more people are coming to the ER and using services. … It's just a big domino effect."

But the wait isn't the same for everyone. Emergency room staff members are trained to give immediate care to those who need it.

"When they go to an emergency room, it isn't a first come, first serve basis," Vinocur said. "It really is taking care of the most ill people first, and if you think you haven't been triaged correctly, tell them you want to be reassessed."

The American Heart Association recommends that patients suffering from an apparent heart attack be put on cardiac monitoring immediately and that they have an electrocardiogram done within 10 minutes of their arrival.