Democrats turned back an attempt to strip out a provision that Obama has said was essential. It would provide a tax cut of up to $1,000 for working couples, including those who do not make enough to pay income taxes.
An angry doctor allegedly threw a baby and twisted its arm and an elderly patient was left to die in a hallway at Bundaberg Hospital in Queensland, Australia, staff claim.
Three hospital staff have sought whistleblower protection after detailing allegations of gross medical neglect and incompetence, overcrowding, bullying, intimidation and cover-ups to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.
A nurse who spoke to The Courier-Mail said she was repeatedly made to falsify records to hide lengthy waiting times in the emergency department.
She said triage cases were improperly and dangerously downgraded because of understaffing. She said a troubled teenager who waited five hours without seeing a doctor ran away and slashed her wrists.
And a doctor said he was too busy to see a boy who had been stabbed in the leg in a suspected child abuse case. The cases are among 100 serious and minor procedural errors on the hospital's prime reporting database.
Dismissed as a troublemaker and frustrated at the lack of response, the nurse and two others took complaints to Burnett Parliament member Rob Messenger, who first raised allegations against the hospital in Parliament in 2005.
Messenger called for an inquiry, saying it was clear patients and employees of Bundaberg Hospital were "in continuing danger of physical and psychological danger."
