Death of Edith Rodriguez

On May 9, 2007, Rodriguez is reported to have lain on the floor of the hospital's emergency department waiting room for 45 minutes while boyfriend Jose Prado made calls to 911 to report that Rodriguez was dying but hospital staff could not be convinced to treat her. According to waiting room video, and a June 15, 2007 report by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for at least 30 minutes "staff members walked past the patient or worked to clean the floor next to her without interacting with her"; at one point a janitor cleaned the floor around Rodriguez as she vomited blood. A bystander made a similar call, telling the 911 dispatcher that a woman vomiting blood was being ignored by emergency-room staff.

Edith Isabel Rodriguez (February 1, 1964 – May 9, 2007) was a woman who died of gastrointestinal perforation at the Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital (King-Harbor) in unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States, after being refused treatment by hospital staff. Staff believed that her pain was due to a gallstone attack and thus did not believe she required urgent medical care. Rodriguez's situation became a cause célèbre about the failures and bureaucratic indifference of both King-Harbor as well as political and health leaders in the Los Angeles area, creating or reinforcing fears that the health care system will not take care of people in a time of dire need. The Rodriguez case resulted in press coverage on national news networks such as CNN and CBS News.