By Andrew L. Wang
Chicago Tribune (Illinois)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Copyright 2006 Chicago Tribune
The death of a Waukegan woman in July after she spent nearly two hours in an emergency room waiting area was ruled a homicide Thursday during a Lake County coroner’s inquest.
Though the immediate cause of Beatrice Vance’s death in the early-morning hours of July 29 was a heart attack, she also died “as a result of gross deviations from the standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in this situation,” said Coroner Richard Keller, reading from the jury’s verdict.
Members of Vance’s family were present at the hearing but declined to comment after the verdict was reached.
Vance’s daughter Monique, who was with her mother in the waiting room of Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, has previously said she believes her mother died because she was made to wait too long.
“It’s a staggering result, and I think the family needs time to digest it,” said Allen Schwartz, a Chicago attorney retained by the family.
Schwartz declined to comment further, saying he had not yet seen hospital records of Vance’s hours at the hospital.
Cheryl Maynen, a Vista East spokeswoman, said the hospital had investigated the incident and had cooperated with the coroner’s investigation. She declined to comment on the homicide ruling, Three hospital attorneys who attended the inquest also had no comment.
At the hearing, in the county administration building in downtown Waukegan, Deputy Coroner Robert Barrett testified that he subpoenaed the records after noticing discrepancies in the hospital’s version of events after Vance arrived at the emergency room at 10:15 p.m. July 28.
Monique Vance told him that only a few minutes before, her mother had complained of chest pains and the two drove to Vista East, about a mile north of the house they shared in the 400 block of North County Street.
Beatrice Vance was seen by a triage nurse at 10:28 p.m., Barrett testified. According to hospital records, she complained of nausea, shortness of breath and chest pain of a level she rated as a “10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest,” he said.
“The triage nurse classified her condition as ‘semi-emergent,’” he said.
As they waited, Monique Vance told Barrett, she twice asked nurses when her mother would see a doctor. The first time she asked, a nurse said her mother was next on the list to be called, Barrett said. The second time, a nurse told her that two ambulances had just arrived with more urgent cases.
“She said she was half-tempted to call 911 from the hospital just to get her mom back there,” Barrett testified.
At 12:25 a.m., an emergency room nurse went to the waiting room and called for Beatrice Vance but got no response, Barrett said. She was leaning on her side on a waiting room seat, unconscious and without a pulse.
Doctors rushed her into the emergency room and administered CPR, Barrett said. About 12:55 a.m., doctors detected a weak pulse, but 10 minutes later it stopped, and they restarted CPR.
Beatrice Vance was pronounced dead at 2 a.m. An autopsy showed she died of a heart attack caused by blockage of an artery in her heart.
Citing guidelines published by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiologists, Barrett said Beatrice Vance’s symptoms fit the description of a heart attack “pretty much to a T.”
Those organizations recommend that patients apparently suffering from a heart attack should be put on cardiac monitoring immediately and have an electrocardiogram done within 10 minutes of arrival at the hospital, he said.
Neither measure was taken while Vance was waiting, said Keller, the coroner.
The organizations also recommend that blood thinners and other medications be administered within three hours of arrival, Barrett testified. In Beatrice Vance’s case, no medication was given until after her heart stopped, Keller said.
Dan Shanes, chief of felony review for the state’s attorney’s office, said his division has not reviewed the death for criminal charges.
A spokesman for Waukegan police, potentially the investigating department, could not be reached.