(“… the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable . . . If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” I Cor. 12: 22, 26.)
The old woman sat in a wheelchair. A note pinned to her read, “She’s sick. Please take care of her.” Dr. Toni Mitchell, director of Tampa General Hospital’s Adult Emergency Department, says the practice — which some have called “granny dumping” — has become common now that life expectancy in the United States is a record seventy-five years of age. In Emergency Rooms from Florida to California, elderly people are simply being abandoned. Already understaffed and overworked, Tampa General’s Emergency Room must also function as an unofficial placement center for an average of two to three cases per week. “They roll them in the door, and all I see are the vanishing taillights in the distance,” says Mitchell.
Life Magazine, March 1992 (adapted).
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