06/23/2023
Lisa LeAnn was 44 when she died on a ventilator at OHSU. She had been sick for months and repeatedly sought help from Salem Health. They sent her home with partially collapsed lungs without telling her. They told her she wasn’t in any respiratory distress. She was buying canned air from Walmart to get oxygen because they would not treat her.
She advocated for herself and continued to seek help as she became more sick. She was sent home from Salem Hospital twice before she was admitted a third time and never recovered. To add insult to injury, Salem hospital staff cracked jokes about her failing organs while she was dying and they thought she was asleep.
I know that there are many others who have been treated horribly at Salem hospital and who have witnessed their loved ones treated horribly there as well.
This is our city and these are our people. Let’s work together to advocate for ourselves and our neighbors so that people are listened to, treated for their illnesses, and treated like their lives have value.
Lisa was an incredible woman who was selfless and kind. She made it her personal mission to ease the suffering of others everywhere she went. Her death has been horrific for those of us she left behind. But it didn’t have to end this way. Salem hospital didn’t even try to save her. They dismissed her, ran her in circles for months trying to get help, refused to treat her when she couldn’t breathe, and then laughed at her while she was dying.
If we care about the people in this city, we cannot allow our neighbors to be ignored to death.
