Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

I am sure many of you have had to wait in waiting rooms while numerous doctors and nurses walked past you while you continued to sit and wait.
I have brought my elderly Mom to the ER several times and she has multiple health problems and she also has a medical history that should cause alarm. We have waited as long as and hour and a half for someone to even come into the room and put a BP cuff on her. As far as Mr. Woods not exhibiting and heart symptoms??? I was always told that a sore throat or even a strange feeling in the throat and vomiting, is indeed a sign of a possible heart attack. They most likely dismissed his symtoms as flu-like, and because he was nice enough to not be a pest and make a big deal out of it, he was ignored. I hope James Woods is able to find the answers he deserves and perhaps the hospitals and their staff can all learn from this.

hmmm...I don't know who is telling you that a sore throat and vomiting are tell-tale signs of heart attacks in 49 year old men, but you should probably be consulting someone else.

We all want cheap health care, but also want to log jam the ER with drug seekers, people with colds or no other place to go, in addition to people who are really sick.

Can someone please tell me how we can have inexpensive health care when everyone who walks through the hospital door expects to be tested for heart attack, cancer, herpes, hiv on and on and on...there are standards of care that Dr's follow people...

To Joanne,
After reading your comment,I wish to give kudos to Miriam Hospital emergency room.My husband drove himself in,we described his symptoms,they started checking him immediately.He had a mild stroke.There was no waiting at all.Only on my stubborn husbands part to go in.After 9 months of rehab he is about 98% himself.I know that this is not the same case but please don't blame the emergency rooms.I think most of them do the best that they can in a work overloaded environment.

If you have ever had to wait in an ER, I hope you understand why everyone needs to have health care. If we valued preventative care and not profit, you would not have to blame the "doctors and nurses" that are walking by.

thank you, Mr James WOODS. Let's hope you will get answers and justice for the sake of the memory of your brother as well as for the sake of hospital's patients. KENT Hospital medical staff failed, did not do their work in appropriate professional way, should be severely sentenced, some of them fired.

For those of you who have never worked in the ER, let me tell you how it really is. The ER is no longer an "emergency room" or an "accident room" as it used to be called. It is now a place for primary care for the uninsured, mixed in with the legitimate sick people mixed in with ridiculous complaints. kids with a fever of 99.2 need to go to the pediatrician; let us not forget the psychs, especially the ones that attack you, the drunks. You all think that the doctors and the hospitals are to blame and perhaps they are but spend 1 8 hour shift in an ER and observe what really goes on.

If Mr. Woods presented with "throat pain" with no other signs and symptoms of cardiac issues, there are many triage nurses would put him in "express care" for throat pain. When Mr. Woods "throat pain" began, was when he was having the initial heart attack. By the time he made it to the ER, the damage was probably already done and his heart could not recover. Believe or not that happens sometimes. Heart attacks can have very little non visible symptoms.

Our job is to distinguish between the really sick and the not so sick. That can be a very blurry line. Everybody has had good and bad experiences in the emergency room but if it is used for what it truly is, many of these serious situations could be avoided.

Contrary to popular belief, we don't ignore anybody. We can only go by vital signs, past medical history and current symptoms. We try our best.

my heart goes out to the woods family. i hope they are able to find some consolation in all this. as far as kent hospital goes, i've heard one bad story after another over the years. nobody i know would ever set foot in that place. even back in the 70's, they had a doc that ended up in jail for putting in pacemakers upside down in his patients. i had a car accident and my broken jaw was reset by an idiot doctor there and to this day, my entire bite is crooked even tho at the time, i pointed it out to the doc. he just told me not to worry about it. my bite has been screwed up for 30 years! that is one scary hospital, in my opinion.

The medical profession can not always be wrong in treating this family. If I am not mistaken, this is the second medical malpractice suit filed by this family, the first one with a Win in their column.

This should've never happened to this family! Kent Hospital is so incompetent! You would think if a patient has vomiting, sore throat and a pain in his throat then it should be looked at by a doctor and not sent to a place of the hospital that does nothing! My prayers go out to the whole Woods Family. Just remember he is always with you.