Just Awful

I know the world is filled with horrible things, and that in the greater scheme of things a woman being stranded at a medical office isn't the worst thing that has (or will have) happened today
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Medicaid-Patient-Stranded--260666861.html

Still, the fact that this is a sick, poor woman that was offered nothing by way of help from the doctor's office is appalling. She is disabled and was provided a ride to and from the office by a company that contracts with the state-except they never came to pick her up. For THREE hours she wandered in and out of the office in tears, even being asked what was wrong by the staff, and NO ONE called her a taxi and paid the fare. I don't believe for one second that they couldn't scrape together the fare out of the office petty cash to get this woman home. Instead, they let an already ill woman wander the office IN TEARS until another patient's family drove her home-THREE hours later.

What the hell is wrong with people? No really, tell me how as human beings people get to the point where you would acknowledge that someone is clearly distressed, and then do nothing? Instead of focusing the blame entirely on the state, or the contractor that was supposed to provide the service (and they do deserve blame) why aren't we hearing about the medical office that let their patient wander in and out of the building for three fucking hours before a stranger finally gave the poor woman a ride home? How is that caring for your patient?

The message is loud and clear: If you're poor or sick (or unlucky enough to be sick and poor) you can just go fucking die. That's the message. Just go fucking die, and show some gratitude!

I have no idea why someone ends up in poverty, or sick, or whether they could have done something to prevent it (unlikely). As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter once someone is there. Blaming the victim is a popular pastime these days, but at some point your humanity ought to kick in.  I am far from being anything close to "good person" by any of the commonly accepted definitions. I am however, still clinging to what passes for a human being, and as such I cannot imagine any circumstance where it would be acceptable to let a sick, poor person in distress continue to pace in and out of a building in tears without offering assistance. There's no amount of mental gymnastics that can make such behavior anything but wrong. I do take comfort knowing that a stranger finally took pity on the woman, and drove her home but that does not let the others who ignored her off the hook.

I really do worry for our future.