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Sep 24, 2008 5:11 pm US/Central
Dallas Man Dies After Waiting 15 Hours In ER
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A Dallas man died at Parkland Hospital Saturday after waiting 15 hours in the emergency room for doctors to see him.
Mike Herrera went to Parkland Friday afternoon. He had been playing golf, but cut his game short because he was having abdominal pain.
He waited in Parkland's emergency room all night before doctors saw him Saturday morning.
He began vomiting, and not long after staff had taken him to an examination room Herrera collapsed and died.
Parkland doctors tried for two hours to revive him, but they couldn't save him.
Herrera, 58, had a history of health problems, including hernias.
He was the youngest member of the family that founded the chain of Herrera's Restaurants.
Now some members of his family want to know why it took so long for doctors to see him at the hospital. "I knew he was gone," said his sister, Becky Marquis. "They kept telling me they were going to try to do everything for him. And I thought, 'Why now? Why didn't they do this yesterday?'"
Ron Anderson, M.D, is Parkland's CEO. He says doctors are still trying to figure out why Herrera died. "His vitals were normal," Anderson said. "Everything about him indicated he would not have an acute event. So what happened at the end is still a mystery at this point that will be fully investigated."
Parkland is not the only hospital where a patient has died after a long wait in an emergency room.
A Canadian newspaper reports that just last week a man died after waiting 34 hours in a Winnipeg ER.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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