*Update* Missing Woman Found Dead at SF General Hospital

[Megamel29]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...sco&id=9279716

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A woman who disappeared from her hospital room more than two weeks ago was missing without a trace until Tuesday when her body was discovered on a fourth-floor stairway. She didn't get very far, but why it took so long to find her is now the key question.

Sna Francisco resident Lynne Spalding, 57, had been missing from a hospital for 17 days and was the subject of an intense search by friends and family. On Tuesday, her body turned up in a stairwell -- at the hospital.

So far, San Francisco General Hospital has been sparse with details. "I think there's a lot of questions, if that's the case, that San Francisco General will have to answer not only for the family and friends Lynne Spalding, but for the people who come here expecting safety," said David Perry, a friend of the family.

Spalding entered the hospital on September 19 for treatment of an infection. On Saturday morning, September 21, sometime between 10:15 and 10:30, she disappeared. For seventeen days, the family has been in limbo.
"We have been dismayed, disappointed, and frustrated not only by the lack of information coming out of San Francisco General, the lack of a sense of urgency," Perry said.

Sheriff's deputies cordoned off the stairwell Tuesday as a crime scene. The hospital produced no explanation about how it could lose a patient and also apparently miss a body -- all on the same premises.

"It's very concerning that this body was found. We're distressed. We don't know what happened. That's our top priority, to find that out," hospital spokesperson Rachel Kagan said.

San Francisco General issued a statement Tuesday saying, "Today at 10 a.m. a woman's body was found in an exterior stairwell on the hospital campus. The person is deceased and San Francisco Sheriff's Department is leading the investigation, with assistance of the San Francisco Police Department."

"We do not know the identity of this person and have no further information at this time. We are cooperating with the investigation and will provide another update as information develops."

A news conference will take place at 11 a.m. at San Francisco General Hospital on Wednesday.

[JohnFrash]

Is the hospital massive with multiple stairways? That is the only thing I can think of... My college had a couple of stairways that nobody used unless it was to fornicate. They were fairly hidden by newer renovations. If you weren't the type of person to explore, you would never know it was there.

[DiamondSmiles]

AP
February 3, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO — Nurses at a San Francisco hospital, "inadvertently discontinued," a doctor's orders to have a staff member maintain a constant watch on a patient who ended up leaving her room and was found dead in a locked emergency stairwell 17 days later, California public health inspectors found.

A report the inspectors prepared for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services states that Lynne Spalding was considered an, "elopement," risk from the time she was admitted to San Francisco General Hospital for a bladder infection, sepsis, unexplained weight loss and disorientation.

Staff members working the graveyard shift on September 20, initially were instructed to check on Spalding every 15 minutes and cautioned in writing, "NEVER to leave patient unattended," according to the findings first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, and obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday.

Later that morning, after Spalding had wandered into a nursing station and been unable to identify the date and spoke nonsensically, a doctor wrote an order for a, "coach/sitter," to provide around-the-clock bedside supervision. But, the nurse to whom he had given the order told investigators she, "did not get a chance," to enter the information onto the form used to convey patient care instructions between the day and night shifts.

Sitting with patients who are at risk of falling or wandering away is one duty of patient care technicians, who are not nurses but lesser-skilled hospital workers. One already had been assigned to the room to keep Spalding and her roommate safe from falls. But the sitter was told to suspend her vigil when the roommate was transferred in the afternoon, and she then resumed checks four times an hour.

The charge nurse on duty at the time, "stated that if he was aware of the physician's order, he would let the coach/sitter stay in the room," the report says.

Spalding, 57, went missing from her bed on September 21. A building engineer conducting a quarterly inspection discovered her body on October 8, in the stairwell that was locked on the inside and located 99 yards from her room. The San Francisco coroner attributed her death to dehydration and an electrolyte imbalance likely related to chronic alcohol use, but could not pinpoint when she died.

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, whose department provides security for the public hospital, has conceded that deputies failed to conduct a thorough search for Spalding.

The report prepared for the federal agency contradicts statements hospital officials gave after Spalding's body was found. They said Spalding was supposed to be checked on every 15 minutes and had been, including right before she left her room.

Instead, the state inspectors found, she went unsupervised for at least 40 minutes before her disappearance because the staff member assigned to look in on her was called away for an errand and a meeting and no one was assigned as a replacement.

A hospital spokeswoman did not respond to an email seeking comment on Sunday, but San Francisco General officials reiterated in a statement to the Chronicle that they have worked hard to improve patient safety protocols since Spalding's death and, "we are a safer organization today."

The federal report provided more details about the approach sheriff's deputies took to the search for Spalding. It states that on September 30, nine days after Spalding was reported missing, four different deputies were all told to search the hospital's ten stairwells. One searched the grounds but no stairwells, and another two checked only a pair of stairwells a piece.

A commander said the fourth deputy reported completing the check, but the deputy informed the state investigators he hadn't because he thought he was supposed to search for Spalding, "only if he had free time."

"This report confirms what we have saying since September 21, 2013 when Lynne Spalding disappeared: SF General and the SF Sheriff's Department never took seriously the safety and welfare of Lynne Spalding," the woman's family said in a statement Sunday. "Instead they ignored our calls, childishly pointed fingers at each other, and shuffled deck chairs on a waterlogged ship."

The body of Lynne Spalding was discovered in a locked stairwell at San Francisco General Hospital. AP Photo: Courtesy of David Perry & Associates

I hope the family sues the hospital's asses off! They didn't follow orders and didn't check the stairwells and there are only ten!

[Megamel29]

Did this happen a while ago?

[Kelseecat65]

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...spital-134597/

[Megamel29]

Originally Posted by Kelseecat65

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...spital-134597/

Lol I thought it sounded familiar.

Damn shame. Who dies of dehydration and electrolyte imbalance outside of third world countries or homeless people?

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Megamel29

Did this happen a while ago?

It did, but, suddenly, it's in the news again.

Investigation took a while, as usual, while the family is going crazy!

I thought she looked familiar.

It was your op, lol! I'll have them combined.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Kelseecat65

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...spital-134597/

Thank you, Kelseecat65! Couldn't place her, but, she did look familiar.

[Kelseecat65]

Some pic/articles stick in my mind and some dont...this was one that did and was easy to find!!

I am one of those annoying people that love to find duplicate posts so they can be combined! I think I might be a little OCD! LOL

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Kelseecat65

Some pic/articles stick in my mind and some dont...this was one that did and was easy to find!!

I am one of those annoying people that love to find duplicate posts so they can be combined! I think I might be a little OCD! LOL

It drives me crazy sometimes when I recognize something, but, cannot find it!

I had that with the 16 year old whose father let her parachute out of a plane.

After I posted it, there it was

I appreciate it though. Thanks for the help. I don't find it annoying. Cannot speak for everyone else.

If you find typos, let me know, too, please :)

Just one big, happy, dysfunctional family here