Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You decide the death was a homicide
A woman waited for two hours in an emergency room and did not receive treatment.
She died of a heart attack in the hospital's waiting room. You decide that
the heart attack caused the death and list the cause of death as natural.
The case is soon forgotten by the media and does not get much public attention.
Some time passes before you are called into the hospital again. There has
been another death in the waiting room. You can't help but wonder if it could
have been avoided if you had made a different decision in the first case.
"When I ran for office, I pledged to also investigate 'medical misadventures'.
Just as our office obviously is there to serve [the deceased] who can no longer
serve themselves, just as much, we are here to protect the living residents
of Lake County and to forestall death when we can," says Dr. Richard Keller.
He is a coroner in Illinois and was faced with this exact circumstance and
decision in real life.
There was a coroner's jury (a body convened to assist a coroner in determining
the cause of death) in the case, and Keller told them that, "The definition
of homicide that I give to the jury is either a willful and wanton act, or
recklessness on the part of someone, whether that's by their actions or by
their inactions. Certainly, by that definition, this is a homicide."
The coroner's jury agreed with Keller, and ruled the woman's
death a homicide. This meant that her death would be investigated further,
including the hospital's practices. That might lead to legal prosecution.