Editorial: Doing nothing ends in tragedy

While this was an amusing end to a popular television comedy, an eerily similar occurrence happened over the weekend. But the ending in this real-life situation was a tragedy. Christoper Sercye, an innocent bystander, was shot while playing basketball in Chicago. According to the Associated Press, he was carried to within steps of the Ravenswood Hospital, but hospital staff members refused to leave the building to treat his injuries. He sat outside the hospital for a half-hour before a police officer brought him inside. Sercye died an hour later.

On Monday, the day after Sercye died, the hospital's president revoked the policy that prohibited staffers from leaving the hospital to treat injured people. But for Christopher Sercye, the policy change was a day late.

It's bad enough when average people don't come to the aid of someone who is critically ill, but for a hospital staff to refuse treatment is outrageous. The fact that a hospital would even have such a policy in the first place is shameful.

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