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Edith Isabel Rodriguez, 43, died on May 9, 2007, on the floor of the emergency room waiting area at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in Willowbrook, an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County, California. The county coroner's office attributed her death to a perforated bowel. She had been on the floor for roughly 45 minutes while two people who called 911 for her were told that help would not be sent.

Rodriguez's boyfriend, Jose Prado, placed the first call through a Spanish-language interpreter, telling the dispatcher that she was vomiting blood, according to recordings later released by authorities. The dispatcher said paramedics would not take her because she was already inside a hospital and told Prado to speak with the medical staff. About eight minutes later, a bystander called 911 to ask for an ambulance to move Rodriguez to a different hospital. "It is not an emergency," the dispatcher answered, according to the recording, and directed the caller to find a hospital supervisor.

Surveillance video from the waiting room showed staff members and other patients passing Rodriguez as she lay on the floor, and a janitor cleaning the area around her while she vomited blood. A report issued June 15, 2007, by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that for at least 30 minutes employees walked past her or worked nearby without helping. The same review concluded that emergency patients at the hospital were in "immediate jeopardy."

Hospital staff believed Rodriguez was suffering from a gallstone problem and did not treat her as an urgent case, according to investigators. Medical experts cited in the reports said she likely would have survived if she had been treated sooner. Toxicology testing found methamphetamine in her system at a level that was not considered life-threatening.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services issued letters of expectation to several employees after the death. The triage nurse, Linda Ruttlen, was placed on leave, later resigned, and was referred to the state nursing board. A contract janitor received verbal counseling.

King-Harbor, a public hospital that had been troubled for years and was known in news coverage as "Killer King," lost its federal funding and closed in August 2007 after failing a federal inspection. In 2009, the county Board of Supervisors approved a $3 million settlement with Rodriguez's children. Prado received a separate settlement reported at $250,000.