On May 16, 1998, an event occurred that outraged many and presented an emergency department's physicians and nurses with an ethical and legal dilemma. Christopher Sercye, a 15-year-old boy, was shot and wounded. His friends carried him to within 50 feet of Chicago's Ravenswood Hospital, put him down, and left. Hospital staff saw Christopher lying there but did not go out to help him because hospital policy did not allow staff to leave the hospital premises to render emergency care.
How would you respond if Ravenswood Hospital offered the following arguments in defense of the claim that it violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)
“Christopher Sercye never came to our Emergency Department; therefore, we had no EMTALA obligations.”
“We were very short-staffed at the time and all available physicians and nurses were caring for patients in the ED.”