Jackson's Flu Stay Cost Elderly Woman Her Life

Michael Jackson Forum

Elderly woman died 'after making way for Jacko'

The family of a woman who died after being moved out of a trauma room to accommodate the ailing Michael Jackson plans to sue both the hospital and the star.

Manuela Gomez Ruiz, 74, was transferred out of the main trauma room at the Marian Medical Centre in Santa Maria, California, when Jackson was rushed in suffering from "flu-like symptoms" last week.

Her family claims she was taken off a machine ventilator and her breathing was instead assisted manually by a handpump.

Mrs Ruiz was being treated after having a heart attack but suffered two more that day before she died.
Her daughter-in-law, Anna Ruiz, told ABC News she saw Jackson come into the emergency unit.

"He walked in," she said. "When I saw him, he was walking unassisted."

Daughter's objections

Mrs Ruiz's daughter Maria Elena Ortiz was also in the hospital and objected when her mother was moved.

"Why does she have to be moved if he's coming in for a stomach flu?" she said. "I said, 'My mother just had a heart attack and I think it's more critical than a stomach flu'. They didn't say anything."

The family claims the chaos caused by Jackson's arrival distracted staff. They said equipment had to be crammed into the smaller room and they were limited to two visitors at a time.

Those visitors could not then leave because the hospital restricted movement in the corridors when Jackson arrived, the family claims.

Relatives allege that the hospital's policy "needs to be changed" if a patient with flu can take precedence over someone with a heart attack. They have hired a lawyer to sue the hospital and the star.

Jackson's publicist Raymone Bain issued a statement saying: "Michael Jackson sends his condolences to the family of the deceased. However, it is outrageous that Michael Jackson's name would be invoked into a situation of which he had no authority or control. It appears that ABC is deliberate in its attempt to circumvent Michael Jackson from receiving a fair trial."

Jury selection in Jackson's child molestation trial was delayed while the singer recovered from the flu. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin in the Santa Maria court on Monday.

- Daily Mail

If that were me, I would be sueing everyone I could think of and then some.

They moved a terminally ill, critical heart attack victim from a trauma ward, so Jackson could go in and blow his nose in privacy? That is honestly revolting. I don't have the words to express how disgusted I am about this.

It is one thing for celebrities to get to the front of the line at starbucks or something, but this is going way too far.

Then again, with Michael Jackson, I am surprised he didn't have the whole hospital cleared of peple before he went in.

You'd think he'd just have a hospital at Neverland, he gets sick that often

The hospital was totally negligent in my opinion. The flu is not a reason to commandeer a trauma room from a critically ill woman.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here, but I'm sure the hospital had little to do with this woman's death. Two heart attacks in one day? Whether it was machine or hand pump, this lady was already gone.

Maybe, but that just makes it more obvious she should have been in the trauma ward.

Jackson demands special treatment wherever he goes.

A friend of mine's father used to run a Sharper Image in So. Cal, and this Jack-ass-o arranged so he could come in, after hours, but not before the store was sterlized.

He pulled the same crap at Disneyland too.

-HECK!

I'm sure this woman isn't the only one who got slighted by MJ's presense. Hospital Emergency Room policy states that the most severe cases are seen first. I wonder how many other people were in the waiting room with more severe medical problems waiting to be seen while MJ was no doubt ushered right in and given a room.

I have been in the ER for a couple things and it has always been the more severe the injury or the health problem, the faster you are seen.......but in no case have I seen even someone come in with chest pain who didn't get immediate care. Now this woman had a heart attack, and MJ comes in with a tummy ache and he gets priorty care..............sue on sister.


But all in all it isn't MJ's fault that the hospital staff were such ********.

The Bottom line Inner City...

PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE FLU DONT GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!!!

Are you trying to tell me that MJ doesnt have his own personal doctor that wouldnt give him a home visit???

Thats right....Id bet any amount of money, he has doctors on call for this type of stuff.

How often have you heard him bringing his children to the hospital for colds or flu's? Probably has never happened.

Unless my kid is running a dangerously high fever...I dont take him to the hospital...

And given that MJ walked in on his own, I can guess that he did not have a high fever, which more than likely would have had him in a wheelchair or stretcher in order to enter.

As for MJ causing problems being in the waiting room, then if he just HAD to be there, have him wait in the hallway or clear out some other waiting room for him...but do NOT take a woman with heart problems and clear her out to fit in a person with a cold, who walked out later with no problems.

Do I blame the hospital? Absolutely....do I blame MJ....absolutely.

This wasnt a trip to the hospital for something major...it wasnt even for the flu as it was as much to delay the trial for just a few more days...out of, what I'll bet, was more of a convenience for him than anything because he had something else to do.

Its one thing to play devil's advocate but without some sound reasoning behind it...well, the role doesnt fare well. Sorry.

IF Michael had been actually sick with something a bit more serious, I could perhaps understand the hospital moving someone to make a room available to stop hysteria in the waiting room.

BUT the fact remains that:
1) several witnesses have said that he walked in by himself, and as he has been known to use a wheelchair when he is feeling poorly in the past, we can assume that he wasn't feeling THAT bad.
2) A doctor has spoken out and said that it wasn't even the flu, it was only a head cold and he didn't need hospitalisation.
3) He probably does have his own doctor. He has a staff of like a million people so he must have a doctor, or even a registered nurse for god's sake, who can take his temperature and give him some asprin, which is basically all the hospital did.

So Michael had no right, no reason, to even be in that hospital, let alone to kick a trauma patient out of her room. Is he negligent though? Probably not. Does he deserve to be sued? Probably not. Unless you can prove that Michael only went there in order to delay the trial, then you can't really sue him for anything, and proving that might be diificult.

If the governement can't build a proper child molesttaion case against him, this woman's going to have a major time proving he's responsible in any way for her mother's death.

The hosital could have given a room anywhere in the hospital to him, they didn't have to move a trauna patient, that is negligence and the hospital should defiantely be sued.

The hospital should've goven him a room in the Peadeatric ward

My reasoning is very sound, the people that want to sue said Jackson was walking unassisted, they're the only ones that seem to be saying that from the article. But unassisted walking could mean he was nonchalantly strolling in, or he was dragging his feet to enter the room.

Secondly, he's a celebrity, you have to make accomodations not just because they are a celebrity, but because of public reaction to a celebrity (i.e. hysteria). They shut down roads for government officials, if they close a road, and on the detour I'm forced to take, I get into an accident, I can't blame the government official.

Jackson was ill, that's all we know, saying he was faking is just speculation, as far as we know he was ill, and they had to give him a room because that would be best for the hospital.

Again, many people are moved around a hospital in poor condition. There is no indication that moving the woman caused her death. The two subsequent heart attacks caused her death.

If I may quote: