When Affirmative Action Kills
A recurring theme we've covered here is the consequences of placing unqualified individuals in fields such as medicine or aviation, where mistakes can cost lives (see, for example, The Next Affirmative Action Disaster).
We’ve had six aviation near misses so far this year. @St1Station on what comes next. https://t.co/fH1G0W4eYN
— Portfolio Armor (@PortfolioArmor) March 25, 2023
In the remarkable thread below, Richard Hanania detailed the affirmative action disaster that was Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, a hospital so bad locals called it "Killer King".
The hospital was founded in 1972, in response to black riots of the late 1960s. Elites in LA, like elsewhere in the country, determined that racism was the cause of pathologies in the black community.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
Therefore they decided to open up a hospital to serve locals. pic.twitter.com/kSf5fHPB3u
Problems appeared right away.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
In 1975, the LA Times reported on "horror stories implying neglect and incompetence."
Employees were said to be drunk on the job or on drugs stolen from the hospital pharmacy.
A letter from a nurse in 1977 gave it the moniker of Killer King. pic.twitter.com/ahHt2t2Dz5
King/Drew spent $20.1 million on malpractice payouts from 1999-2004. Adjusting for the number of patients it saw, this was the worst figure of any hospital in the entire state of California. pic.twitter.com/U3O9jOEYZh
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
Once, a nine year-old daughter of Guatemalan immigrants was hit by a car. She had minor scrapes and a few broken teeth, and her parents thought should would be out before long.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
But the girl wouldn't survive Killer King. pic.twitter.com/uCnnQc33ur
The girl was soon brain dead and had to be taken off of life support.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
The family settled with the hospital for $195,000, and as of 2004 was planning to build an alter at her grave in Guatemala. pic.twitter.com/9FFy6FXETl
In 1994, a woman went to Killer King for a hysterectomy. She got a blood transfusion that had tested positive for AIDS, but nobody had bothered to check.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
The hospital tried to discourage a doctor from letting her know, but he did anyway. pic.twitter.com/rXZAuzNe2H
Where did that money go? Overpaid employees, many of which became famous for their creative disability claims.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
"Between April 1994 and April 2004, employees filed 122 chair-fall claims at King/Drew."
The hospital spent $3.2 on claims of employees falling out of chairs alone. pic.twitter.com/x6augIJ7M4
A male nurse was tending to a semi-conscious patient having a leg operation. 20 minutes in the surgery, he reported being slugged in the back by a female colleague who knocked him to the floor.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
King/Drew was expected to pay him more than $500,000 for back and neck injuries. pic.twitter.com/Bul20RoQu4
In five years, Killer King spent nearly $34 million on employee injuries. That was more than any of the University of California medical centers, some of which were two or three times its size. pic.twitter.com/r2Vbh1Bsat
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
"King/Drew pays its ranking doctors lavishly. Some draw twice what their counterparts make at other public hospitals - often for doing less. Eighteen King/Drew physicians earned more than $250,000 in the last fiscal year, including their academic stipends. Harbor-UCLA had nine" pic.twitter.com/rwvTuxr9ce
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
Once, a nurse ordered a janitor aide's to mix up IV medication for a critically ill patient.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
According to Civil Service records, the janitor aide's job only required him to recognize "a limited number of two- and three-syllable words."
The nurse lost her license. pic.twitter.com/iEPIpbXDHz
A 28 year-old man died when the nurse who was supposed to be watching him had silenced the alarm on his vital-signs monitor.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
She also falsified his medical charts, claiming that he was in stable condition an hour after he had died. pic.twitter.com/k9rweLX4J1
When LA County met to discuss closing the trauma center, Maxine Waters organized a demonstration that included Jesse Jackson, and grabbed the microphone as she took control of the meeting. Politicians were cowed into silence for decades. pic.twitter.com/fShSv9OIGM
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
Over time, the surrounding community became more Hispanic. Many of them illegal immigrants, they were generally unwilling to assert themselves.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
Some already expected hospitals to do things like operate on the wrong leg, so they didn't see anything surprising at King/Drew. pic.twitter.com/GSqi5fg4sv
While still serving the black community, the new hospital appears to have much lower ambitions than King/Drew. As of 2017, it didn't have a trauma center and avoiding hiring specialists or treating the most difficult cases. It focused on basic preventative and primary care. pic.twitter.com/u9QvBZUSfy
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
Having learned nothing, since 2020 California schools have been announcing new DEI initiatives. We'll see what happens after the SCOTUS decision.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
King/Drew shows what happens when you bring DEI staff together in one place. The problem is less noticeable when you spread them out
From 2003-2013, the Medical Board of California reports that blacks were 2.7% of doctors but received 4.4% of complaints, among those whose race we know. Numbers are also bad for other groups that get AA. https://t.co/XGk7ndHfaY pic.twitter.com/fi5iUSy3tq
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
The diversity ideology poisons everything it touches in a vicious cycle.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
Incompetent doctors, race baiting politicians intimidating those who know better and protecting failed institutions. Now, a press that has become more openly committed to covering up inconvenient facts.
I’m going to do a series on these, so follow in order to keep up to date. Trust me, there are many more Killer Kings out there in practically all areas of American life.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) July 14, 2023
In Case You Missed It
In our Exits post on Friday, we highlighted the best-performing hedged portfolio from our January 12th cohort on the Portfolio Armor website. This one more than doubled the performance of SPY over the next six months, with the biggest gains coming from a position in Super Micro Computer (SMCI).
This is another example of the benefit of concentration. If SMCI had been one of dozens of stocks in a portfolio, it wouldn't have had as big an impact. You can find an interactive version of that chart here.
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