Healthcare is a huge profession, with millions of medical professionals serving hundreds of millions of people in every state, 24/7. So it should not be surprising if a few weird stories pop up now and again.
In an effort to tap into a rich vein, we at HealthLeaders Media have cobbled together a list of some of the weirdest stories in the healthcare realm for 2009. We've steered away from the healthcare reform, and anything inside Congress, because they're already weird enough.
All the stories are odd. Some stories are funny. Some most definitely are not. Some, in fact, are tragic. And this list is by no means comprehensive. We feel it safe to say that no list of oddities in healthcare could be comprehensive. We're also not going to rank them, because we can't figure out criteria, other than weird, and that is highly subjective.
Off-duty Jacksonville (FL) Sheriff's Office Deputy Joy Smith was hurt in September when her hand was trapped between her police-issued Glock handgun and the powerful magnet inside an MRI machine. Smith was able to free herself, but the gun remained stuck for hours while the machine was powered down, which takes 24 hours. Jacksonville Beach police said Smith's hand was injured and she had difficulty bending her thumb, but it was not known if she sought medical treatment.
Convicted rapist gets X-ray tech job at hospital
A decade ago, Gariner Beasley was kicked off the LAPD and sent to prison after he raped women while on-duty and threatened them with arrest and jail if they did not submit. Ordinarily, that might create a problem for some potential employers, but County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles hired Beasley. Reportedly fully aware of Beasley's criminal past, the hospital hired him as an X-ray technologist after he got out of prison, even though the job would leave him working alone and unsupervised with female patients. He was subsequently fired when the LA Times wrote about it. "We had real pinheads working for us," Supervisor Gloria Molina told the newspaper, referring to managers who cleared the hires.
Philly ER patient dies in waiting room, watch stolen
It's sad and ironic when someone dies unattended in an ER waiting room, so close to the life-saving care, and yet forced to wait because of overcrowding. A security camera was rolling when Joaquin Rivera, 63, brought his hand to his chest and died in the busy emergency room at Aria Health's Frankford campus in Philadelphia, about 11 minutes after complaining to ER personnel of pains in his left side. Rivera's death did not go completely unnoticed, however. The security tape shows that 39 minutes after his passing, another person in the ER stole his watch. Hospital workers walked by him several times, but did not notice that he appeared to be dead until 50 minutes after he'd stopped moving.
Pregnant Vegas woman claims hospital ignored her
A woman says she was ignored for so long at a Las Vegas hospital that she went home and gave birth to a premature baby that later died. Nevada State Board of Nursing administrator Debra Scott wouldn't provide specifics about the complaint stemming from 25-year-old Roshunda Abney's attempt to get treatment Nov. 30 at University Medical Center, the region's only public hospital. Witnesses who were in the waiting room have corroborated accounts by Abney and her fiance, Raffinee Dewberry. They reportedly told authorities that a nursing aide told them to mind their own business or they wouldn't see a physician themselves.
A gut feeling that something was awry
For the staff at St. Helena Hospital, Clearlake, CA, the routine surgery to remove a lower colon went like clockwork. Unfortunately, a report by the California Department of Public Health determined that staff failed to remove all parts of a stapling instrument used in the procedure. That shortcoming might have gone unnoticed except that, several days later, "Patient 1 had a bowel movement and noticed a clanking noise in the commode. A metallic structure found in the commode was determined to be the upper part of the stapling apparatus. The structure was subsequently forwarded to the manufacturer for evaluation of a possible defect," the report said. At the risk of being accused of picking on California, here's a list of several potentially dangerous things that hospital personnel did in the Golden State.
Holiday spirit eludes coffee-breaking EMTs
Pregnant mother Eutisha Revee Rennix, 25, died after two FDNY EMTs allegedly ignored pleas to help her when she went into cardiac arrest at her job in a Brooklyn bread and bagel shop, where they were taking a break. "They are useless. They are heartless," Cynthia Rennix, Eutisha's mother, told The New York Daily News. Co-workers said they begged two EMTs in the store to help, but they allegedly said, "Call 911" before walking out with their food. The two EMTs were placed on modified duty and are barred from providing patient care. A spokesman for the EMT union said the situation with its resulting accusation was an "odd event."
Plastic surgeon Loren J. Borud, MD, five other doctors, and two nurses at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston were sued after Borud allegedly fell asleep during a liposuction surgery injuring the patient. Borud told concerned colleagues before the surgery that he'd been up all night working on a book. "How common is it that nurses and other personnel don't speak up? I can't think of any [hospital] in the world where this isn't an issue," said Allan Frankel, MD, founder of a patient safety consulting company based in Washington, D.C.
Cost shifting, up close and personal
Jim Bujalski of Denver said he was "surprised" when his bill for one night in the hospital was more than $58,000. Medicare and supplemental insurance covered most of the costs, but there was still a bill of $730 for "self-administered drugs" that Bujalski takes regularly at home. St. Anthony's Central Hospital charged him about $497 for two tablets of Plavix, a drug Buljalski he usually buys for $8. A Crestor tablet cost $65 in the hospital, at home he pays about $3 for it. The charges represent about a 3,500% mark-up. "I thought there's got to be some mistake here," Buljalski told a local TV station. St. Anthony's reportedly offered Buljalski a 40% discount that brought his bill down to $438. "I don't understand how they can come anywhere close to justifying that," Buljalski told the TV station.
Security officer hijacks healthcare building's HVAC
The FBI arrested a Dallas man in July who allegedly hacked into a healthcare building's IT system and was prepared to take over the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system. The suspect, who worked as an overnight security officer for the site, allegedly had bigger plans of using the compromised computers to instigate a massive attack on other computers elsewhere. Police say Jesse William McGraw, who allegedly used the online aliases "GhostExodus" and "PhantomExodizzmo," is allegedly part of a hacker group called the Electronik Tribulation Army.
Hacker holds hostage Social Security numbers, demands $10M
Virginia officials last spring warned more than a half-million people whose Social Security numbers may have been contained in the Prescription Monitoring Program database that was hacked into by a criminal demanding a $10 million ransom. The hacker left a ransom note in April at the Web site that read: "I have your [stuff]! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :( For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password."