Neighbors of Fort Lee Woman Who Died After GWB Closures Delayed Emergency Response Speak

[Mortos]

Source: NJ.Com

Neighbors described the 91-year-old Fort Lee woman who lay unconscious as lane closures at the George Washington Bridge delayed first responders from attending to her as a private, as a religious person.

A letter from the borough's EMS coordinator to the mayor said, in at least four instances, that emergency officials were snarled by traffic in responding to calls, including to one on Harvard Place involving an elderly woman who later died.

The woman was later pronounced dead at Englewood Hospital. Favia did not attribute her death to traffic, but, he wrote, "I would also like it to be noted that paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road."

Neighbors identified that woman as Florence Genova, a widow with two children who lived out of state.

Read more: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/neighbors_of_fort_lee_woman_who_died_after_gwb_closures_delayed_emergency_response_speak.html

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It's not a fucking joke when old ladies die, Governor Christie.

[Javaman]

1. because of the delay causing this woman to die, could this be tied potentially to negligent

homicide?

[SodoffBush]

2. There will always be emergencies.

Christy's fragile ego impeded emergency responders. What would have happened if a terrorist attack had occurred at 30 Hudson Street?

If any state should know the value of emergency responders, it should be New Jersey.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. The christie administration ...

reminds me of that kid that pulls a "harmless" prank; only to watch, in horror, the proximate results of the prank ... results that any thinking person would/could have foreseen.

[2naSalit]

4. The thing about that

is that whomever (Christie) was behind it, as revealed by the e-mails, had a good idea of what could happen and didn't care because they figured the mayor would be blamed for the whole mess. I think that was the only part they were remiss in considering was that they smell would be traced back to them. Hard to see where it would nor could have been seen as the mayor's fault when the bridge is not under his control.

Flaming idiots. Of course, when revenge is your tool, you are probably lacking some serious cognitive functions.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. What makes you think he feels 'horror'?

[1StrongBlackMan]

22. Well ...

just like the young prankster ... the horror isn't based on what is happening, but the realization that the mess is getting too big to walk away from and ignore.

[AtheistCrusader]

23. Ooh, excellent point.

[Doctor_J]

24. Except this was malicious, involved a large number of his staff and cronies,

and he's not a kid.

[PeoViejo]

5. The Lady that died was Sicilian

..cue theme from the Sopranos.

With all due respect, Gov......as he kisses Christie on both Cheeks....

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. there goes THAT demographic!

[Kingofalldems]

6. Special Prosecutor becoming necessary on this one.

[ladywnch]

7. he's actually trying to play off the delay

contributing to the death of this woman. "causes of her death are still being investigated"...or words to that effect.

He KNOWS there's (at a minimum) a wrongful death suite here and he wants NO part of it.

[onehandle]

8. I heard he called to yell at her, triggering the collapse.

There's all kinds of video of him yelling at women out there, so it's not impossible.

[LynneSin]

9. I'm annoyed by people who think "well she was pretty damn old - maybe she was ready to die"

That's not the point.

The point is that the Christie admin screwed up traffic so badly that the paramedics couldn't get to this lady for 4 hours which means that was 4 hours that she could have been in severe pain and suffering without the help of a paramedic to ease that pain.

I know that no one here at DU has been saying that but I see that on other boards and it's annoying as hell!

[VA_Jill]

10. I will admit that

I thought, well, she was 91 and maybe it was her time, but at the same time I also thought, and she could have had some comfort measures if EMS could have got there, dammit! So it is possible to think both.

Disclaimer: I'm an RN (ret.) who worked a LOT of cardiac.

[Richard D]

11. And just maybe .

She had another 10 years or so to her life.

[loudsue]

16. There is a woman in our county who is going to be 103 in February, and she

still makes biscuits and pies, crochets, etc. Doing really well. When your family has the longevity gene, you can go on for a lot longer than anybody suspects, doing pretty darned well.

[VanillaRhapsody]

27. there's a 99 yr old in my family that is still driving and going on airplane trips..

with NO wheel chair...like across La Guardia...

[loudsue]

29. Now THAT is impressive. Good for her/him!

It's not over until it's over!

[VanillaRhapsody]

30. She just refuses to accept that she is old...

I think that's her secret. She won't even take an offered elbow when walking with her!

[marias23]

12. "Time to die" does not matter

It does not matter legally if it was her "time to die." If their action can be shown to have caused her death, by delaying care for no legal reason they are culpable.

[kjones]

13. Could you direct me to the "4 hours" quote?

Everything I've read says it doubled the time from 3-4 min to 7 minutes.

The only result quoting 4 hours I can find on google is....yours.

[Cha]

17. She got the minutes and hours

mixed up.. it was 7 minutes when average time is 4 minutes. To me.. it doesn't matter, though.. it was done deliberately and anything could have happened. It was cruelly stupid.

[ninjanurse]

18. Saw that too

I saw the 7 minute time also. I think it's a very bad idea to jump to conclusions that this woman would have lived if not for the delay. Let the investigation play out. I don't want us to lose the fact that delaying emergency services was a crime of reckless disregard in a fight over whether this particular woman's death was directly caused by the bridge closing.

[kjones]

25. To be clear, people should be bashed over the head with this.

I just think people need to be very clear and correct about things, I mean what are we, FOX?
I also agree that "would she have/wouldn't she have" is pointless...actually at all. The act (of messing up traffic) in an of itself is ridiculous enough, additional outrage isn't even necessary. We can't ever KNOW if it contributed to someones death, but we know for sure it wasted tons of time, tons of gas, and had the absolute potential to harm people.

I just don't like sensationalism in general.

I do see that the "4 hours" poster probably did just accidentally switch hours and minutes...in which case, sorry for the unnecessary snark.

[VanillaRhapsody]

28. It doesn't matter...we will never know now...because of them...

[Karma13612]

31. I think the four hours might have been related to school kids

Getting to school four hours late.

i think it was first day of school, and kids were very late due to the traffic jams.

[MissNostalgia]

14. I cant stop thinking about her

This woman's death and this sabotage occurring so close to and on the 9/11 Memorial, its so chilling to me.

[George II]

15. Good point - if it was a Democratic governor's staff it would be characterized as....

....an act of terror. In fact, it was - a deliberate act to disrupt traffic and the people of Fort Lee.

[SunSeeker]

20. +1

[Ken Burch]

19. Republicans think old ladies should die as quickly as possible, to save on pension costs.

Let's just say it...let's just call it what it is...gerenticide.