Call 911 When You Think You Are Having A Heart Attack

If you suspect you are having a heart attack and plan to go to an emergency room the better plan may be to call 911. Why do I say this? Calling 911 virtually assures you will receive prompt emergency attention by EMT’s or paramedics at your location and then be transported quickly and safely to the emergency room where you will likely be wheeled immediately into the presence of a physician who has already been alerted to your condition.

Beatrice Vance probably drove herself to the emergency room. After complaining of the classic symptoms of a heart attack she was allowed to sit in the waiting room for almost two hours until she died without ever seeing a doctor. Her death has been properly labeled a homicide.

Death after two-hour ER wait ruled homicide

WAUKEGAN, Illinois (AP) — A coroner’s jury has declared the death of a heart attack victim who spent almost two hours in a hospital waiting room to be a homicide.

Beatrice Vance, 49, died of a heart attack, but the jury at a coroner’s inquest ruled Thursday that her death also was “a result of gross deviations from the standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in this situation.”

A spokeswoman for Vista Medical Center in Waukegan, where Vance died July 29, declined to comment on the ruling.

Vance had waited almost two hours for a doctor to see her after complaining of classic heart attack symptoms — nausea, shortness of breath and chest pains, Deputy Coroner Robert Barrett testified.

She was seen by a triage nurse about 15 minutes after she arrived, and the nurse classified her condition as “semi-emergent,” Barrett said. He said Vance’s daughter twice asked nurses after that when her mother would see a doctor.

When her name was finally called, a nurse found Vance slumped unconscious in a waiting room chair without a pulse. Barrett said. She was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

Barrett said he subpoenaed records after finding discrepancies in the hospital’s version of events.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the ruling would lead to criminal charges. Dan Shanes, a chief of felony review for the state attorney’s office, said his division needed to review the case.