Nurse suspended after patient dies at South LA hospital

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A 47-year-old patient died at a troubled South Los Angeles hospital after an intensive care nurse ignored her worsening condition and only alerted doctors once she went into cardiac arrest, county health officials said.

The unidentified woman, who had been suffering from pneumonia and sepsis, died Nov. 18 at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center after alarms on her vital-signs monitor were either turned off or lowered.

The nurse, Ruth Bell, was suspended pending discharge, officials said. She could not be immediately reached for comment Saturday by The Associated Press.

An 18-year veteran, Bell allegedly failed to request blood for a transfusion for nine hours before finally administering it just minutes before she called a “code blue” alarm, said county health department spokesman John Wallace.

She also falsified records to indicate she had checked the woman’s vital signs, obtaining the patient’s file after her death, inserting notes, and then lying about doing so, said Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the county Department of Health Services.

Last October, a different intensive care nurse turned down the audio alarm on a 28-year-old man’s monitor and then didn’t notice the man’s heart was barely beating, officials said. That nurse is accused of falsifying the patient’s medical records and indicating he was stable more than an hour after he died.

In hopes of improving care, the county has hired turnaround specialists to fix the hospital’s problems.

The hospital could lose nearly $200 million in funding - roughly half its budget - after failing a federal inspection of procedures used to restrain aggressive psychiatric patients. Federal officials are to decide by Jan. 19 whether to withhold the money - a move that could force the county to close the entire hospital.

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