By Holly Fletcher, July 30, 2015: The woman, brought by family to Vanderbilt's emergency room from a rural county, was very sick with symptoms that pointed to a brain tumor. Of "extremely modest means" and uninsured, she had no way to pay for treatment and had delayed seeking care.
The interns and residents "had to fib and shimmy and twist" to work around the system to provide medical care, said Dr. William Schaffner. Her county judge, who had a fund for indigent care, had exhausted the money, so Schaffner and his colleagues said she had an emergency to get her admitted regardless of means.
