If someone said, "describe a murder," most people would describe someonedoing something to someone else: "Man shoots..." or "Woman strangles..."Murder is rarely thought of in the absence of something -- in the doing ofnothing -- yet nothingness can be as effective in killing as a gun.
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Denying someone access to something they need -- like food, water, air,and when someone is ill, medical care -- is as efficient as taking a bat andbeating them to death.
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As evident in the surveillance video from Kings County hospital, EsminGreen's death in the ER on June 19 is an example of nothing in its lethal form-- a death that's indicative of what's rampant throughout the medicalindustry: people being murdered through denial of care. (In addition toblatant neglect, people are also being denied medical care through falsenegative test results, physician's orders wrongly being overruled, blaming thevictim's mentality (i.e. -- 'you're just suffering from anxiety') as well asother such denial of care based philosophies.)
While Kings County hospital and the staff should be held accountable fortheir actions, the most honorable way to pay tribute to the horror of what Ms.Green endured (and try to safeguard this behavior from happening again) is bytaking a moment to reflect on the stresses that have pushed hospital staff tosuch demon behavior in the first place.
What's driving this?
A number of reasons, but the major one is lack of adequate funding forhospitals. Starving the hospitals fosters anger, resentment, and crueltytowards the ill -- the people who have come to them for help.
Neglecting the needs of the hospitals is breeding hospitals neglecting theneeds of the patients. While it's true that everyone should have the right tomedical care, the hospitals need money to function -- to keep their lights on,the electricity going, not to mention the staff and maintenance. If they'regoing to be legally bound to care for anyone (as they are now), shouldn't thatsame government be compensating them for those same lives as well?
Not putting enough funding into an operation is like running a car withoutenough oil -- eventually it's going to wear down the engine and parts of itwill fail. As demonstrated in the video of the death of Esmin Green, in themedical industry that failing is people's lives.
There are constant reports regarding the U.S. spending more money than anyother country on medical care, so then why are there so many problems?
It's time to reroute the money that's currently going into the pockets ofthe insurance companies and put it back into the medical system where itbelongs. Instead of insurance premiums, place the money into the hospitalsthemselves -- this could be accomplished through a "tax" or (perhaps moreefficiently?) through a non-profit organization designed to do nothing butsupport the medical industry (i.e., instead of paying $200/month in aninsurance premium, it would be $200/month into a generalized hospital fund).
As much as their websites and commercials may want to have us believe, theinsurance companies are not keeping the lights on at the hospitals -- orpaying the hospital staff -- and (as evident by recent hospitals closing) theydefinitely aren't stepping in to save them when they're crumbling.
Currently, the health insurance companies are collecting money from theAmerican people and hoarding the excess to themselves.
At first glance Esmin Green's death may seem to be due to poverty orracism, but unfortunately it's not that simple. Her death brings to light aninstitutionalized practice throughout the entire medical industry of denyingpeople access to medical care -- people of all colors, of all economicbackgrounds, killing them without a touch.
Until the money the Amer
