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April 06, 2008
UPDATE to : Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells
Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells
By DEBORAH SONTAG
Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.
The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.
“We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,” said Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System.
Linda M. Weiss, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit hospital, said the Clinton campaign had never contacted the hospital to check the accuracy of the story, which Mrs. Clinton had first heard from a Meigs County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy in late February.
A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said candidates would frequently retell stories relayed to them, vetting them when possible. “In this case, we did try but were not able to fully vet it,” Mr. Elleithee said. “If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that.”
The sheriff’s deputy, Bryan Holman, had played host to Mrs. Clinton in his home before the Ohio primary. Deputy Holman said in a telephone interview that a conversation about health care led him to relate the story of Ms. Bachtel. He never mentioned the name of the hospital that supposedly turned her away because he did not know it, he said.
Deputy Holman knew Ms. Bachtel’s story only secondhand, having learned it from close relatives of the woman. Ms. Bachtel’s relatives did not return phone calls Friday.
As Deputy Holman understood it, Ms. Bachtel had died of complications from a stillbirth after being turned away by a local hospital for her failure to pay $100 upfront.
“I mentioned this story to Senator Clinton, and she apparently took to it and liked it,” Deputy Holman said, “and one of her aides said she’d be using it at some rallies.”
Indeed, saying that the story haunted her, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly offered it as a dire example of a broken health care system. At one March rally in Wyoming, for instance, she referred to Ms. Bachtel, a 35-year-old who managed a Pizza Hut, as a young, uninsured minimum-wage worker, saying,
“It hurts me that in our country, as rich and good of a country as we are, this young woman and her baby died because she couldn’t come up with $100 to see the doctor.”
Mrs. Clinton does not name Ms. Bachtel or the hospital in her speeches. As she tells it, the woman was turned away twice by a local hospital when she was experiencing difficulty with her pregnancy.
“The hospital said, ‘Well, you don’t have insurance.’ She said, ‘No, I don’t.’ They said, ‘Well, we can’t see you until you give $100.’ She said, ‘Where am I going to get $100?’
“The next time she came back to the hospital, she came in an ambulance,” Mrs. Clinton continued. “She was in distress. The doctors and the nurses worked on her and couldn’t save the baby.”
Since Ms. Bachtel’s baby died at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, the story implicitly and inaccurately accuses that hospital of turning her away, said Ms. Weiss, the spokeswoman for O’Bleness Memorial said. Instead, the O’Bleness health care system treated her, both at the hospital and at the affiliated River Rose Obstetrics and Gynecology practice, Ms. Weiss said.
The hospital would not provide details about the woman’s case, citing privacy concerns; she died two weeks after the stillbirth at a medical center in Columbus.
“We reviewed the medical and patient account records of this patient,” said Mr. Castrop, the health system’s chief executive. Any implication that the system was “involved in denying care is definitely not true.”
Although Mrs. Clinton has told the story repeatedly, it first came to the attention of the hospital after The Washington Post cited it as a staple of her stump speeches on Thursday. That brought it to the attention of The Daily Sentinel in Pomeroy, Ohio, which published an article on Friday.
Neither paper named the hospital or challenged Mrs. Clinton’s account.
UPDATE:
Clinton drops hospital story from stump speech
CNN for complete story update
Hillary Clinton’s campaign says the candidate will stop telling the story of an uninsured pregnant woman who lost the baby and died after being denied medical care, following a hospital raising questions over its accuracy.
Clinton has frequently told the emotional story of the woman from rural Ohio since late February. In the speech, Clinton said the woman made minimum wage working at a local pizza restaurant, without insurance, when she became pregnant. Clinton said the woman ran into trouble, went to a hospital in a nearby county but was denied treatment because she couldn’t afford a $100 payment. In the speech, Clinton said the woman later was taken to the hospital by ambulance and lost the baby. The young woman was then taken by helicopter to a Columbus hospital where she died of complications.
As recently as Friday night in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Clinton said, “As I was listening to this story being told, I was just aching inside. It is so wrong, in this good, great and rich country, that a young woman and her baby would die because she didn’t have health insurance or a hundred dollars to get examined.”
Wild Thing's comment........
The casual way this woman lies, the public shrugging at her lies, the willingness to make up things to advance a cause for her is just breathtaking. And to take a dead woman, to lie about her death for a political point, is just, well, there is no word for it.
REGARDING THE UPDATE....... Ah, the old “Fake, but accurate” defense. Well good, too bad she didn't do it because she felt bad about her lie. Who's writing her stuff? Dan Rather?
With Hillary’s ability to remember things that never happened and Obama’s ability to “disremember” things that did happen, we have the perfect team to lead the moonbats off into Candy Land, where everything they bake will be satisfying and delicious—talk about your childhood wishes, you can even eat the dishes—la, la, la, la.
...Thank you Mark for this information and article.
Posted by Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 12:47 PM
Comments
She's campaigning for President of the US and can't even have a staffer check out a story Barny Fife told her? The woman not only lies, she has to add to them.
If the story "haunted" her son much, why didn't she contact the woman's relatives? How about having a Pizza at this particular Pizza Hut that only pays its managers minimum wage with no benefits? That would be a way to honor the woman and bring to light how unfair Pizza Hut is. She's a bold face liar.
Posted by: BobF at April 5, 2008 08:37 PM
If lying was an Olympic sport then Bill and Hillary Clinton would win all three gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Posted by: Les at April 6, 2008 12:59 AM
The Clintonistas and their ilk are the party of 50 million abortions ( insideously referred to as planned parenthood ).... We just lost Charlton Heston a few hours ago... this one hurts! RIP Charlton and Moses is greeting you again at Heaven's Pearly Gates!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at April 6, 2008 01:40 AM
Bob yes she is and no shame about it. It is almost like these liars are proud of their lies.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 05:05 AM
Les, you are so right they would win all the medals.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 05:06 AM
Darth, yes I knew he was not doing good but it is still a shock. I will miss Heston so much.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 05:07 AM
This woman couldn't tell the truth even if her life depended on it. Shameful is what it is. When one has to conjure up stories to scare the masses. She is truly a Marx follower.
Posted by: Mark at April 6, 2008 02:24 PM
Another lie, the accused death by deriliction at a capitalist hospital, or the elderly having to eat dog food and the perils of minimum wage mamagement at Pizza Hut. She who has never held down a real job along with that prevaricating penile prognosticator husband. We expect the Clinton's to lie but we also expect the media to be truthful. She is not only promoting her medical scam but the labor unions also, I'm surprised she didn't Sully Sam Walton's name in the same breath, it would be great if Sam were alive today to move his assets out of Bentonville, Arkansas and let the Clinton's support the city with their promises.
Posted by: Jack at April 6, 2008 04:52 PM
Mark, I just can't get over it, how a person lies like she does and the other dems that do this kind of thing. It is so easy today more then any other time to check on the truth, she just doesn't even care if she gets caught.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:36 PM
Jack yes your right. And the thing is if they had done more work and research they probably could have found some story that was true, maybe not the same topic of a mom and a baby, but some true story of medical injustice. They just didn't care about the truth and she sure as heck doesn't.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:39 PM
I just saw this Barny Fife on FOX and what a WHALE! He's a deputy in law enforcement? This whale is as OBESE as they come, and the jowls under IT'S chin resembled Jabba the Hut! Barny Fife wasn't OBESE nor hung out at Mr. Donut joints, eh? What a slob this guy is.....How IT can fit into a patrol cruiser is beyond me WT.
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at April 7, 2008 04:38 AM
