The 41-page report reveals details of what led Len Fishman, state commissioner of health and senior services, to force the emergency-room closures. It describes violations found in 11 cases reviewed by the state in which patients received inadequate emergency-room care from doctors and nurses.
The three most serious cases involved:
* An adolescent who suffered a seizure and died on Dec. 2, 1997, six days after she was admitted to the Bridgeton hospital's Adolescent Inpatient Mental Health Unit. The girl was admitted to the unit on Nov. 26 because she had stopped talking, eating or drinking after delivering a baby two to three weeks earlier. The doctor did not review the results of a urinalysis until three days after it was completed. The girl died of a urinary infection, a possible reaction to narcotics or medications given in the psychiatric unit.
* An infant who died on Jan. 26, 1997, of pneumonia after an on-call pediatrician failed to respond to three pages from the Bridgeton emergency room. The state report also cited a nurse who never notified the emergency-room physician that the baby's IV was out and she could not reinsert it. The emergency-room physician first examined the baby at 12:35 a.m.; the infant, whose sex was not specified, was pronounced dead at 5:25 a.m.
* A patient who twice visited the Millville emergency room on Nov. 30, 1996, complaining of blurred vision, vertigo and vomiting. He received medication and was discharged. The following day, the patient arrived at the Bridgeton emergency room and died. The state report cited the Millville emergency-room staff for failing to provide any post-treatment evaluation of the patient.
