Woman, 20, critically injured after police chase, crash

 @RalphCramden One of my duties for the patients was entering charges for their stay in to our computer accounting system.  I believe how "expensive" it supposedly is to have a trauma happen is falsely advertised by people complaining about bills.  The highest bill I ever saw for a critical (came in code blue, gunshot wound, hours in surgery, repeated bowel resections, etc) was for 1.2 mil and that was for six months of intensive around the clock care.  I did this job for 10 years, mind you.

 

The money will not be paid out by uninsured motorists.  Instead, it is written off annually as charity care, and is one of the reasons the costs of healthcare is so high.  Don't get me wrong--my doctors are skilled, but the huge salaries they demand in addition to the hugely inflated supplies cost (really, 6.00 for a bandage?!  100.00 an attempt for IV starts???) don't help matters either.  However, the costs are inflated and they get passed on to every other insured person who walks through that door.  As for it coming out of the courthouse budget---that is tax revenue is it not?  So either way, the average citizen pays for the hospitalization.  At least keep the public safe while you're doing it.

 

I also had a friend who married a man who was an electrician turned cop.  They trained him to be so paranoid in the academy she ended up divorcing him because he became so negative and angry it was affecting her and the children.  I understand you must be overly cautious in a job like this, but breeding compassion and empathy out of these people is just a huge mistake waiting to happen.  How can there be truly be justice and "innocent until proven guilty" when the enforcers of said justice operate under the completely opposite mantra?

 

That said...I'll agree with your assessment of the accident.  From the amount of intrusion into the driver's compartment, the shape of the windshield, and the description of the accident?  I am guessing massive brain trauma so yeah--if after all the surgeries to remove necrotic tissue and stuff are successful she'll either be vegetative or severely impaired and incapable of being charged.  Such a tragedy, regardless.

 

 @Melissa Stidham-Clary The police will get this girl once she leaves the hospital. They know who she is and won't be going far. No need to worry about her getting away.

 

If the police arrest her now they will get the bill directly and it comes out of the county budget. If they wait till later then the money comes from a much larger budget. It's just cost shifting. If she had no auto insurance (my bets on that) then uninsured motorist will be paying the bills.

 

With a severe trauma patient the cost can run into millions is a very short time as you probably know. Just having the trauma team show up at the ED is expensive and the first day can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars in surgery and ancillary costs.

 

You are correct in that there is fine line between a cop and a criminal for some of them. This isn't true for all of them. They are often both alpha males. One doesn't have a criminal record and kept clean while the other never thought that far ahead. I have seen many cops go bad over the years and yet there was not change in their  personality. They were the same person on both sides of the law.

 @RalphCramden The PPD makes me so livid in situations like this.  I work trauma and so by the very nature of stories such as these, my unit sees a huge number of these patients.  As a matter of fact, I can pretty reliably watch the evening news and know who I'll be caring for the next day.  We are no longer allowed to release information on people (HIPAA) who will be discharging, so it is routine for the police to not charge people as RC said, they don't want to pick up the tab.  So we've seen horrible people like child molesters go free because the department is too cheap to put them under arrest and pay their healthcare (the tab goes to the taxpayers, either way) but we had a person who accidentally drove down a one way street and crashed in to a squad car and you better believe he was chained to the bed with a guard outside his door.  It's just craziness.  I think police need to have their paranoia training toned down, they really do bring a lot of these situations upon themselves.  Like the cop who almost t-boned me whipping out in to an intersection to try and ticket me.  I was so scared I just pulled off the road for fear he'd do something exceptionally stupid.  Then in addition to ticketing me for doing "65 MPH in a 45"  off a red light, no less!  He cited me for failure to yield because I didn't pull over where he thought I should.  So unimpressive.  I honestly subscribe to the statement that if they weren't cops, most of them would be criminals.

 @Owt_Raged 

Probably because of the abuse I had suffered from a couple of very prominent citizens in my hometown. That said I have nothing again people possessing wealth. It is how some of them abuse it with power and influence over others. I was merely using Romney as an example, nothing more. Aside from that Owt_Raged, we are in a significant dire time in this country and everyone is afire over it as am I.

 

 @jallard Just out of curiosity, why would you bring Romney into this discussion?

And I did read your comments.  You kept referring to rich people.  Perhaps you meant something else, but your posts reflect you comparing your non wealthy upbringing to those who have money, when neither have any bearing on what we were discussing.

 @Owt_Raged 

I am not confused. I was making a point that you obviously read into it what you wanted to. I am extremely well aware of character and values. Romney is a prime example of the wealthy not having values such as in integrity and forthrightness.  I was instilled with a solid work ethic, having watched my mother doing her best to raise four sons. As I said I stated I had the responsibility of an adult when I was just ten years old--if you even bothered to read my comment. And, throughout my 65 years  no one can take away the fact the my work ethic was second to none. By today's standards--in may professions-- a college education and the ability to brown nose your way to the top is the norm.

 @last boyscout Totally not true. 100% of kids are born into a socioeconomic class. There are those type a's where nothing will hold them back, some will get a break thanks to physical attributes via college sports recruitment/scholarship, and a few might get a right place/right time lucky break, but the vast majority will stay poor. Tough to get a break when you have nothing.

 @Melissa Stidham-Clary 

 

While I commend you for your imitative let me tell you a story that I find myself repeating lately:

 

My mother was a single parent mom trying to raise 4 boys on a waitress salary in the 60s. As a lad of ten after my parents divorced my father moved to Florida.  Unwilling to give her children up my mother worked sixteen hours a day, six days a week. (Meanwhile, I was at home taking care of three boys, changing (cloth) diapers, making baby formula, cleaning house and doing laundry. I was ten years old. There was no choice at the time. I did what I had to do.

 

I would also wake up late at night because I could hear my mother crying at the kitchen table, because the bursitis in her right shoulder ached beyond reason.  (We had no health insurance.)  So, I would just sit there listening to my mother cry. Still, she would awake the next day and go to work.  And, then one day in November of 1966 she died at work from a Cerebral Hemorrhage. She was forty-two years old.

 

As for all of the street urchins on the streets of Portland they aren’t all from wealthy homes and yes, some are indeed lazy as you say. However, you sanctimonious people cannot put them all in the same basket, so to speak. That’s wrong and you know it is. (You really don't know anything at all about those kids.) I happen to know several of those tattooed laden, pierced eared kids who have gotten off of the street, gotten as job and are now going to Portland State University. In closing, I would appreciate it if you would quit patting yourself on the back, because of your better than thou attitude --because you made it.  Just sayin!

 @jallard It is absolutely true that we get numerous choices on a daily basis.  The entitlement complex is kicking merrily right here in good ol Portland oregon.  Rich kids who decide they want to "be" street urchins while still sucking off mommy and daddy, because god forbid they would dirty their hands doing menial labor like...you know, working at McDonald's or as a copy boy somewhere.  If you watch a good many of the homeless here for any length of time (just like OWS, unsurprisingly) you'll see the very people complaining about the tyranny of the rich pull out iphones, laptops, etc.  They dress in "vagabond chic" and whining and crying about the evil rich because they want what the affluent have and they believe they shouldn't have to pay for a cent of it.  They choose to remain in that situation.

 

I had a child at 23.  Granted, it wasn't a teen pregnancy, but when you are on your own and making just barely above minimum wage with a dead beat dad, you're lucky to pay rent, let alone have any extras.  I took assistance for 6 months (food only) because it was that or my son would starve.  I managed to get by working OT shifts and still go back to school to get my degree.  This was with a 2 year old child and I managed to get a 3.9 cumulative GPA.  I made the choice not to be limited by statistics.  Like last boyscout said--it's about work ethic and how far you're willing to push yourself.  I by no means include those who are incapable of this, but rather those who feel they need not have any motivation.  

 

It is a lack of ethics and motivation plaguing society right now, not lack of intellectual capability or promise.  If YOU WANT SOMETHING, I can guarantee you will find a way to get it.

 @Cindy B. 

 

Really! That is not necessarily true. 

 @jallard Or will not.  We each get choices on a daily basis ...

 @wondering 

May I point out that by today's standards there is no such thing as free higher education, for anyone.  May I also remind you that some of your kind got ahead on the backs of others and many are less than forthcoming with their taxes. There is entitlement trash on both sides of the economic spectrum. Your bitterness towards the under privileged is uncalled for.

@gofigure     Talk about unbelievably ignorant and naive!  Unless on has mental problems, one always has a choice to rise above.  Especially since those poor impovershed souls can get a free higher education to learn skills that will enable them to succeed.  Unfortunately, our welfare state makes it much easier to sit on their azzes, drink, do drugs, and suck from the government teat at the expense of those of us who sacraficed to get ahead and pay taxes.  Dang how I hate the entitlement mentality!

 @jallard  I think one of them was recently a two term president of the United States......which makes the US electorate a bunch of.......

 @gofigure Thanks for the compliment, but I've never been accused of being able to write, especially with my high school education only, and lucky to pass that.

 

And privileges bestowed on me?, not really. Just the usual kid, radish picking all summer when it used to be legal for a 6th grader to work. I've been employed ever since. Past ten years self employed. 

 

 And the example you mention, there will always be those that just don't make it. But most of us, and I mean MOST of us could try a lot harder to succeed. And I'll be the first to admit I could have done a heck of a lot better if I had applied myself. And that I didn't, falls directly upon my shoulders, no one else's. 

 @Penny 

 

That and those we see everyday on the streets of Portland. There are some who simply cannot support themselves.

 @last boyscout What an unbelievably ignorant and naive comment - spoken by someone who has clearly had some privileges bestowed upon him - as evidenced by how well you write.

 

If one is born into poverty, and then due to either bad luck or bad genes is not able to develop a skill set that enables them to rise above their poverty and limiting circumstances, you can bet that this person will most likely remain impoverished; it's certainly not due to their "choice" in the matter.

 

Get down off your high horse and get a clue.

 @last boyscout  @2nd Baseman 

 

True enough, I suppose. Still, there are those who are incapable of any sort of achievement because of  mental or physical disability. I have worked with them in the past I know. That said, I would rather avoid a debate. :-)

 @jallard  @2nd Baseman I agree with you 100% Jallard. So many mentally ill are housed in our jails, it's a fact. And it's going to get a lot worse..put on your seal belts folks. 

 @jallard  @2nd Baseman I believe success to be a choice of the individual. The same goes for poverty.