• 26
  • February
    2010

Nearly three years after suffering a severe brain injury, Jessica Ramirez remains barely conscious and is in need of constant monitoring. In 2007, while at a relative's house, Jessica was accidently shot in the head with an air gun. Still, she remained conscious and, after being taken to a southern California emergency room, was able to walk in on her own.

Then she waited - for five hours.

During that time, her head continued to bleed internally, putting an increasingly large amount of pressure on her brain. Finally, she was flown to a Pasadena hospital where staff rushed her into surgery. The operation saved her life, but left her in a barely conscious state.

Her mother filed suit against the hospital where Jessica waited for five hours and, on February 11, a jury awarded Jessica Ramirez $12 million. The surgeon who operated on Jessica after she was transferred testified that the results would have been better if an operation had been performed sooner.

Representatives for the Greater El Monte Community Hospital, who have maintained that staff acted responsibly and in a timely manner, plan to appeal the decision.

In situations involving brain and spinal cord injuries, immediate action is usually required to prevent further, and irreversible, damage.

However, many California communities are facing budget deficits and public services, like hospital emergency rooms, are being forced to stretch resources thin. Perhaps this was not a factor in Jessica's case, but one has to question whether such incidents will be more prone to happen in the future.

In Los Angeles County, for example, officials recently cut the reimbursement rate by nearly 10 percent for emergency room doctors and specialist staff. Many worry that these cuts will lead to closed emergency rooms and more crowded county hospitals.

Overcrowding at these hospitals could lead to more oversights and mistakes.

It could lead to cases like Jessica's, where a severe, but treatable, brain injury is left unattended and changes a life forever. 

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