16 year old girl dies after 7 hospitals turn her away

[Spidey]

Anorexic girl dies after 7 hospitals turn her away
The Yomiuri Shimbun

OSAKA--A 16-year-old anorexic died the day after she was refused admission by seven hospitals near her home in Miyakojima Ward, Osaka, sources said.

According to the Osaka Municipal Fire Department, the girl's mother became concerned about her semiconscious state and called for an ambulance at about 10:20 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2006.
The ambulance carrying her contacted seven hospitals, but they all refused to admit the girl. When the ambulance eventually arrived an hour later at the eighth hospital in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, which did agree to admit her, she was in a state of shock.

About an hour later, she suffered cardiac arrest. She eventually died of heart failure at about 9 a.m.

(Jan. 20, 2008 )

This is just beyond fucked!! What the fuck is going on down in Osucka anyway!?

S

[succubusqueen]

She was probably on the natou diet!...

[hodensaft]

As an American, I appreciate the fact that I can actually afford health insurance here in j-land and occasionally even visit the doctor. That said, the complete lack of emergency medicine outside of the big cities scares me.

Last year a local English teacher came down with Norwalk virus on the emperor's birthday. She's monolingual, so it took two other foreign teachers and three very nice locals all day to find a hospital that would take her. Not even Narita Nisseki was admitting patients. We ended up driving the poor girl two towns over.

[Samurai_Jerk]

As an American, I appreciate the fact that I can actually afford health insurance here in j-land and occasionally even visit the doctor.

I understand where you're coming from, but in Japan you get what you pay for.

[blackcat]

the poor girl...and family! It must have been traumatic for the poor mother.

This has happened before in Japan last year.

Rich Third World Country thats for sure.

[IkemenTommy]

Geez, stop staring at yourself in the mirror and just fuckin eat something. What could the hospital have done for her?

[Captain Japan]

It's interesting how the media catches onto a topic of outrage (i.e.the false labeling, fake variety shows, etc.), sticks with it for a few months, and then shifts gears to the next one. Ambulances driving around from hospital to hospital might be the newest one.
Elderly woman dies after being turned away by 11 hospitals
Mainichi

An elderly woman died after 11 hospitals turned her away and paramedics struggled to find a medical institution that would accept her, it has been learned.

The 95-year-old woman fell ill at her home in Kiyose, Tokyo, on Jan. 8, and was picked up by emergency workers. However, 11 hospitals in the areas refused to accept her, citing such reasons as a lack of beds, and the woman died about 2 1/2 hours after the emergency call was made.

Among the medical institutions that refused to accept the woman was a third-level emergency medical facility that was equipped to handle patients whose lives were in danger.

[james]

What could the hospital have done for her?

saved her life maybe? not sure if this exists in japan, but maybe after saving her life, referred her to counselling for her condition..

[GuyJean]

Here's a novel idea; Drive to the closest hospital no matter what they say on the radio; I doubt they'd refuse them face to face. It's not Japanese culture.

GJ

[ttjereth]

[quote="GuyJean"]Here's a novel idea]

Yeah they would actually (speaking from experience here).

[GuyJean]

Yeah they would actually (speaking from experience here).

They turned you away, or a native?

GJ

[ttjereth]

They turned you away, or a native?

GJ

My wife (A native).

[GuyJean]

My wife (A native).

Wow, that sucks.. I just would think it'd be easier for the Japanese to say 'no' over a radio than face-to-face confrontation with the 'problem'..

Did they help you find another hospital, or were you on your own again?

GJ

[ttjereth]

Wow, that sucks.. I just would think it'd be easier for the Japanese to say 'no' over a radio than face-to-face confrontation with the 'problem'..

Did they help you find another hospital, or were you on your own again?

GJ

They were "nice" enough to call an ambulance (we arrived there originally by taxi.

They aren't confrontational about it or anything, they just tell you right off "we will not treat you", and I was too worried about the wife and dumbfounded to kick up a fuss at the time.

[joshuaism]

What could the hospital have done for her?

saved her life maybe? not sure if this exists in japan, but...

What you said reminds me of a road sign I saw in Hachinohe a while back. I wish I'd have taken a picture, it was pointing the direction to the nearby "Life Saving Emergency Medical Center".

I chuckled, thinking "Life Saving, huh? Unlike a regular ER, where people just go to die?"

[ttjereth]

:lol: What you said reminds me of a road sign I saw in Hachinohe a while back. I wish I'd have taken a picture, it was pointing the direction to the nearby "Life Saving Emergency Medical Center".

I chuckled, thinking "Life Saving, huh? Unlike a regular ER, where people just go to die?"

I saw a sign that read something like "Emergency Hospital: 75miles along this highway", when I was in Hokkaido.

Better to plan your emergencies in the more remote areas.

[American Oyaji]

:lol: What you said reminds me of a road sign I saw in Hachinohe a while back. I wish I'd have taken a picture, it was pointing the direction to the nearby "Life Saving Emergency Medical Center".

I chuckled, thinking "Life Saving, huh? Unlike a regular ER, where people just go to die?"

I think I remember seeing that sign.

[dimwit]

Anoexria patients can be alot of grief. I can understand why a lot of hospitals in Japan might be reluctant to take them. Many if not most of them have psych/behaviorial problems that can be amazingly disruptive to the staff and other patients in the hospital. I can think of one hospital that ended up having to fire a nurse because of an anoreixc patient. I don't know if this is the case here, or it is just a lack of hospital beds which seems to be the case in much of rural Japan.