Woman goes to ER, kicked out for trespassing, dies in jail.

[derspiess]

Where exactly, are you going with this?

I think derSpiess is suggesting that since she was homeless and mentally ill, she does not deserve the sympathy that normally goes with someone being a mom.

Or that moms don't deserve special consideration that other women don't get.

Is her being born female relevant to what happened to her?

Wrong.  My point is that her having given birth to a couple children is not relevant to what happened to her.  It's certainly worth mentioning in the body of the article; I just don't think there's any good reason to mention it in the headline.

[Razgovory]

Okay I'll try again.


Is her being born female relevant to what happened to her?

[derspiess]

Okay I'll try again.


Is her being born female relevant to what happened to her?

Yeah, 'cuz she wouldn't be a "her" if she hadn't been born female (leaving out the possibility of a sex change operation of course).

[Razgovory]

Why is her being a her relevant but not a mom?

[derspiess]

Why is her being a her relevant but not a mom?

Because it's an accepted, neutral way to identify an adult female.  It's who she is.

I have an email in to one of my journo friends.  I'll post what he has to say.  Maybe he'll side with you, who knows.

[DGuller]

Having blood clots is not an emergency situation, it is a long-term one.

It definitely can be if clots are dislodged.

[DGuller]

One thing that makes me a little suspicious about the article is how they put "Mom" in the headline rather than "woman".

Well... she probably chose not to afford whore pills.

[KRonn]

Having blood clots is not an emergency situation, it is a long-term one.

It definitely can be if clots are dislodged.

I think blood clots definitely are an ER situation, or certainly could be. As we see from this case, people can die from them. I worked with a guy who got blood clots from sitting too long in traffic during a snowstorm, driving home. And he was in very good shape, teaches martial arts. He was in the hospital for a while for it. People can get clots from sitting on long airline flights, or at a desk. But I can't second guess the doctors, as I don't know enough. And we don't know how the symptoms the woman had showed up, to even give an idea of clots. Symptoms might have just apeared to be from her ankle sprain.

[Razgovory]

Why is her being a her relevant but not a mom?

Because it's an accepted, neutral way to identify an adult female.  It's who she is.

I have an email in to one of my journo friends.  I'll post what he has to say.  Maybe he'll side with you, who knows.

Ah, so being a mom is somehow unneutral.  Despite being accurate.  I suppose it's not accepted.  Perhaps the article should have been title "Human ceases to live".  I guess this is part of that "Liberal Media" conspiracy theory that I don't understand.

[derspiess]

Ah, so being a mom is somehow unneutral.

Correct.  Or at least, needlessly identifying someone as a "mom" (why not "mother", btw?) in limited headline space is unneutral.

Despite being accurate.

It may be technically accurate.  I'm sure there are plenty of other technically accurate details about her that don't necessarily belong in the headline.

I suppose it's not accepted. 

To a layman like myself, no.  But since you're taking such exception to my opinion, I've reached out for a professional's take on the matter.  We'll see what he says.

Perhaps the article should have been title "Human ceases to live".

Silly Raz.  Homeless people aren't humans

I guess this is part of that "Liberal Media" conspiracy theory that I don't understand.

See, you're the one bringing politics into it. I knocked the headline for being sensationalized, and sensationalizing in news isn't necessarily partisan.

[Razgovory]

I'm grasping for answers here.

[LaCroix]

anyone criticizing the doctors here aren't taking what actually occurred into consideration, and they may not know how the health system actually works. and yes, "mom" was pointless to include, meant only to attract readers. the only story here is that some journalist couldn't find a real story, so he wrote up some bullshit sensationalist piece

[Monoriu]

Alright, if a doctor can't reasonably be expected to find out what's wrong with a person who comes in with a problem, who do you go to?

If doctors are required to find out everything that is wrong with a person, then they will need to (at least) run full body checks for everybody who comes into the emergency room. 

[merithyn]

I think the biggest reason this woman died was that she was mentally ill. Had she been able to say to the doctor that she had been suffering from leg pain for several days as she had to a woman at the shelter she was staying at, the doctor may have caught the problem. Instead, she presented with a twisted ankle. Anything else she says is going to be taken somewhat lightly given her mental state.

Having worked in an ER with many mentally ill patients that visited us often, I'll say that it's really hard to know what is real and what isn't. When those patients are also homeless, it gets harder yet to figure out if they really need help or if they just want a warm place to sleep for a while.

No doubt this is a sad situation, but I can't see how anyone can find fault with the professionals involved.

[merithyn]

I'm grasping for answers here.

I think derspiess is saying that the copy editor chose the word "Mom" for the headline to pull at heartstrings rather than to just inform the public. Since an article's job is to sell newspapers, using mild sensationalism like that doesn't seem like such a big deal to me, but I can see how it can bother someone else. Luckily, there are usually plenty of other papers one can go to if they dislike one or another. And hey, at least the headline wasn't "Police and ER stupidity kills homeless mother of two!"