Irvine boy killed crossing street

[eyephone]

I pass that intersection every day on the way to work, there are flowers there now, sad. 

I see they were put on the east/north bound side of Lake Forest Dr.  on the Hidden Canyon side of the road.  Alot of fast moving traffic at that intersection. 

Sorry to say but that road has alot of Lake Forest traffic, for an Irvine intersection.  Did that, as well as the language barrier, contribute to the poor idea of driving the boy to a faraway hospital?

Either way, it's sad all around.

Should the Irvine Police check for speeding more often?

 

[irvineshadow]

Should the Irvine Police check for speeding more often?

It would definitely help, even though I have seen law enforcement in that area on many occasions.  I have seen the motorcycle police with the speed gun once, and I think I recall seeing one of those signs that measures and displays driver speed.  But that's on the even faster side of that Lake Forest Rd. which is going towards the 133. 

 

[BruinDoc]

i've worked at both hoag irvine and kaiser irvine.  neither are equipped to handle a serious trauma.  hoag irvine is only a 14 bed ER.

Why aren't these hospitals able to handle a serious trauma? Isn't that what a hospital is for? Kaiser was just built so should be state of the art, Hoag just bought the Irvine hospital, so that should be upgraded too.

Weird.

Training, staffing, certification?, cost?

Check out my reply earlier in the thread. Doesn't have anything to do with state-of-the art or newness...More with staffing, trauma physicians  who are typically surgeons of various specialties being in the hospital 24/7, specialty nursing, etc.

which costs more to staff

Of course cost is an issue. It isn't cheap to pay these folks to be in the hospital 24/7. Trauma services are consolidated at the 4 trauma centers (UCI, Global Chapman, Mission, and CHOC) because of economy of scale and also to ensure that these centers have adequate volume that they can maintain their skills at treating the most severely injured patients. Don't want to dilute that out too much either...

 

[Tbharvey]

It's a sad event, but people living here permanently need to learn English and be prepared for conversations with strangers. I wonder if there was reluctance to use the phone in this accident because of this reason. We can't always have translators on standby. This is becoming more and more problematic as America can't seem to shut the door or enforce expectations upon new residents.

 

[YellowFever]

.

 

[ps99472]

I see kids riding on the sidewalk near my neighborhood, which is fine but they're on the wrong side of the road, against traffic.  Drivers pulling out of entrances don't see them, I know, because I almost hit one.

 

[YellowFever]

.

 

[eyephone]

I see kids riding on the sidewalk near my neighborhood, which is fine but they're on the wrong side of the road, against traffic.  Drivers pulling out of entrances don't see them, I know, because I almost hit one.

Maybe I should ride my huffy bike, so you can hit me. (Just kidding)

 

[cheetos]

I see kids riding on the sidewalk near my neighborhood, which is fine but they're on the wrong side of the road, against traffic.  Drivers pulling out of entrances don't see them, I know, because I almost hit one.

Personally, I think this is why motorcourts are a death trap waiting to happen.  Everyday when you back out from a garage, with no driveway, you risk hitting some kid who happens to be biking inside the motorcourt thinking it's safe when it's anything but.  Homeowners should sue the builder/city for allowing the permit for lack of foresight in the urban planning. 

This. My motorcourt neighbor almost hit my dog (on a non-retractable leash) backing out of their garage. They have one of those quiet hybrid/electric cars so I didn't even know it was on.

Also where the motorcourt meets the street, the view is blocked by the houses so the front half of the car is already in the sidewalk before drivers stop to look both ways.

 

[dethman]

i've worked at both hoag irvine and kaiser irvine.  neither are equipped to handle a serious trauma.  hoag irvine is only a 14 bed ER.

Why aren't these hospitals able to handle a serious trauma? Isn't that what a hospital is for? Kaiser was just built so should be state of the art, Hoag just bought the Irvine hospital, so that should be upgraded too.

Weird.

a lay person may think 'oh that's a hospital they can do everything' but actually hospitals vary widely in their capability to handle certain medical conditions.  you cannot provide every possible sort of medical service at every single hospital as it would be financially unfeasible for both the facility, and also your medical insurance which would have to pay exorbitantly larger costs for your medical care.

there are hospitals than can specifically handle traumas.  ones that can handle heart attacks.  one that can handle strokes. ones that treat children.  ones that can get you a heart bypass.  ones that have specialty cancer care.  and ones that are just designed to get you thru your cough and cold.

to say 'Kaiser was just built so should be state of the art, Hoag just bought the Irvine hospital, so that should be upgraded too' is an uninformed statement, but unfortunately this is what the general public knows.

it's like saying it be mandatory every restaurant in the world serve prime rib at the ready 24/7.  it would increase costs for every single restaurant in material, labor, training, cost of utilities, and would induce a lot of waste because not everyone eats prime rib every meal or every single day and most of it would be thrown out.  most would go out of business and you wouldn't have anywhere to eat.  it's better to have a few select restaurants that are known for it and do it well and go there when you want/need prime rib.

 

[irvinebullhousing]

Agree, 100 % with Dethman. I spent too much time at Kaiser facilities.

 

[riznick]

I find it hard for a parent to leave their kid dying on the asphalt waiting for an ambulance.

Yeah, especially when the hospital is just only 2 miles away with no traffic.  If you drive, you will get your child to the hospital faster than the ambulance will arrive to you on the scene.

That said, yes there are a lot of risks when making this decision.  There's risks of moving the person.  There's risks of getting in an accident.  It's harder to get admitted to the emergency room if you don't arrive on an ambulance.

If I was put in that situation, I'd race to the hospital...  And I have been in that situation a few times.  You have to make a judgement call...

 

[riznick]

i've worked at both hoag irvine and kaiser irvine.  neither are equipped to handle a serious trauma.  hoag irvine is only a 14 bed ER.

Why aren't these hospitals able to handle a serious trauma? Isn't that what a hospital is for? Kaiser was just built so should be state of the art, Hoag just bought the Irvine hospital, so that should be upgraded too.

Weird.

I don't know... 

I've been transferred to Kaiser in Downey once and Kaiser in Anaheim twice from Kaiser in Irvine.  I think it can handle more now, but I wouldn't count on it.   

 

[irvinehomeowner]

@dethman:

BruinDoc's answer helped me because it's more a question of staffing not equipment. Your comment pointed out bed count which is less relevant than skilled doctors/nurses who could deal with trauma. But perhaps you meant the same thing but I was reading "equipped" as in the facilities could not handle a trauma incident... that did not make sense to me because military field staff can handle serious trauma with less equipment.

So given that neither Kaiser nor Hoag, the 2 closest hospitals are not staffed for trauma, was this boy doomed?

 

[traceimage]

I find it hard for a parent to leave their kid dying on the asphalt waiting for an ambulance.

Yeah, especially when the hospital is just only 2 miles away with no traffic.  If you drive, you will get your child to the hospital faster than the ambulance will arrive to you on the scene.

That said, yes there are a lot of risks when making this decision.  There's risks of moving the person.  There's risks of getting in an accident.  It's harder to get admitted to the emergency room if you don't arrive on an ambulance.

If I was put in that situation, I'd race to the hospital...  And I have been in that situation a few times.  You have to make a judgement call...

IMO, it's always better to wait for an ambulance rather than trying to drive yourself. Like others have said, paramedics know how to stabilize the person, can provide aid on the way, can call ahead, don't have to worry about traffic, and most of all, this is their job and they do it every day (unlike the driver who hit the kid who was probably stressed out of his/her mind).

It's a very sad story and I feel terrible for the family.

 

[irvineshadow]

@dethman:

BruinDoc's answer helped me because it's more a question of staffing not equipment. Your comment pointed out bed count which is less relevant than skilled doctors/nurses who could deal with trauma. But perhaps you meant the same thing but I was reading "equipped" as in the facilities could not handle a trauma incident... that did not make sense to me because military field staff can handle serious trauma with less equipment.

So given that neither Kaiser nor Hoag, the 2 closest hospitals are not staffed for trauma, was this boy doomed?

They could have sent him to child trauma by helicopter if they had been called. Maybe, I don't know the criteria for Medicare.

 

[eyephone]

@dethman:

BruinDoc's answer helped me because it's more a question of staffing not equipment. Your comment pointed out bed count which is less relevant than skilled doctors/nurses who could deal with trauma. But perhaps you meant the same thing but I was reading "equipped" as in the facilities could not handle a trauma incident... that did not make sense to me because military field staff can handle serious trauma with less equipment.

So given that neither Kaiser nor Hoag, the 2 closest hospitals are not staffed for trauma, was this boy doomed?

They could have sent him to child trauma by helicopter if they had been called. Maybe, I don't know the criteria for Medicare.

Medicare?

 

[irvineshadow]

I meant medi vac, like the helicopter. Auto correct..  >

@dethman:

BruinDoc's answer helped me because it's more a question of staffing not equipment. Your comment pointed out bed count which is less relevant than skilled doctors/nurses who could deal with trauma. But perhaps you meant the same thing but I was reading "equipped" as in the facilities could not handle a trauma incident... that did not make sense to me because military field staff can handle serious trauma with less equipment.

So given that neither Kaiser nor Hoag, the 2 closest hospitals are not staffed for trauma, was this boy doomed?

They could have sent him to child trauma by helicopter if they had been called. Maybe, I don't know the criteria for Medicare.

Medicare?

 

[zubs]

This discussion is interesting because instinctively, a person would load the patient into a car and get to the nearest hospital asap.  What is recommended is to go against instinct.

 

[Bullsback]

This discussion is interesting because instinctively, a person would load the patient into a car and get to the nearest hospital asap.  What is recommended is to go against instinct.

I agree with you...given these circumstances and how close you were. I would think if it is so cut and dry, the policy would have issued a comment in the article or some other public alert to make sure you remember in the case of emergency, call 911.  This whole thing is just awful.  I have an almost 4 year and and almost 2 year old and I'm always terrified when I'm out on the streets with them (or when my oldest is riding her bike I'm sprinting with her cause maybe she knows better but is focused on something else or maybe she forgets how to stop on her bike)...so that I can catch her before she goes on the street...but you never know the time that you look away and god forbid something happens.

Anyone know of any just good general emergency preperation type courses (What to do, etc)?