Dying man robbed in US hospital waiting room

Posted on December 1, 2009 at 3:34 PM

Updated today at 3:34 PM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man suffering an apparent heart attack died in a Philadelphia emergency room after waiting nearly 80 minutes for help — and a trio of homeless drug addicts nearby stole his watch instead of seeking aid, police said.

Joaquin Rivera, 63, died before seeing a triage nurse at Atria Health's Frankford Campus over the weekend, police said.

Rivera, a musician and activist in the city's Latino community, had spent more than 30 years working as a bilingual counselor at an inner-city high school.

"We're all destroyed. A guy like that, for him to leave us the way that he did — and with what happened to him — everybody's destroyed," said Jesse Bermudez, a friend and fellow musician.

Rivera's cruel end was captured on security videotape, much like the June 2008 death of Esmin Green, who died on a hospital floor as staffers at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn ignored her. Green's family recently settled a lawsuit against the city for $2 million.

Rivera had walked to the Northeast Philadelphia hospital late Saturday from his home a few blocks away after pain started shooting down his right side. He registered at 10:45 p.m. and took a seat, chatting for about 20 minutes with two men and a woman nearby.

Based on witness accounts, police believe Rivera passed out about an hour later. Security video then shows one of the men steal his watch and briefly pass it to the other.

"There's no resistance from Mr. Rivera at all, which is why we believe he's probably dead. There's no stirring from him," said Capt. Jack McGinnis, a city detective.

The second suspect is then seen by doctors, and a security guard arrives to ask his sleeping companions to leave. A witness first reports that Rivera may be dead.

At 12:04 a.m., he is pronounced dead.

"You would hope he would have died with dignity," McGinnis said.

Aria Health offered condolences to the family Tuesday but otherwise declined comment, citing patient confidentiality and the pending criminal case.

McGinnis describes the three suspects as homeless drug addicts. Police arrested one of them, 44-year-old Richard Alten, at the hospital and are searching for the others.

This is tragic, I dont know how it is in every town, but in ours, any heart attack symptoms gets you IMMEDIATE review,,no waiting.

I knew it wouldn't take long before Phila got here. Actually you're right, protocol dictates that anyone coming into an ER complaining of chest pain becomes a priority, the hospital dropped the ball on this one and I know for a fact from a certain sorce, that they too know it. But that's a whole other issue, I'm surprised this story made it rather than the one about the men following the blind woman home and raping her in her house. Our society has gone buck wild.

I had to edit myself here.

Too tragic.

There seems to be no level too low, for some people.