Hopsital staff ignores dying woman

[m21sniper]

Video shows woman dying on Brooklyn hospital floor

By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago

NEW YORK - City hospital officials said they were shocked by surveillance footage showing a woman falling from her chair, writhing on the floor and dying as workers failed to help for more than an hour.

Esmin Green, 49, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours when she toppled from her seat at 5:32 a.m. on June 19, falling face down on the floor.

She was dead by 6:35, when someone on the medical staff, flagged down by a person in the waiting room, finally approached, nudged Green with her foot, and gently prodded her shoulder, as if to wake her. The staffer then left and returned with someone wearing a white lab coat who examined her and summoned help.

Until the staffer's appearance, Green's collapse barely caused a ripple. Other patients waiting a few feet away didn't react. Security guards and a member of the hospital's staff appeared to notice her prone body at least three times, but made no visible attempt to see if she needed help.

One guard didn't even leave his chair, rolling it around a corner to stare at the body, then rolling away a few moments later.

Green, who had been involuntarily committed the previous morning, and had waited overnight for a bed, stopped moving about half an hour after she collapsed.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the hospital, said six people have been fired as a result of the incident, including security personnel and members of the medical staff.

Green's medical records raised the possibility that someone might have tried to cover up the circumstances of the death. They contained notations indicating that she was up and about during the time in which the video shows her dying on the floor.

"We are all shocked and distressed by this situation," HHC's president, Alan Aviles, said in a statement. "We express our deep regrets to the patient's family and will ensure a thorough investigation to answer any questions that remain."

Details of the death were disclosed by the hospital on June 20, but the case largely remained unnoticed until the video became public.

The psychiatric unit at Kings County Hospital had already been a subject of complaints by advocates for the mentally ill.

A state agency, the New York State Mental Hygiene Legal Service, filed a lawsuit a year ago, calling the psychiatric center is "a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger."

Patients, the suit said, "are subjected to overcrowded and squalid conditions often accompanied by physical abuse and unnecessary and punitive injections of mind-altering drugs."

"From the moment a person steps through the doors," it added, "she is stripped of her freedom and dignity and literally forced to fight for the essentials of life."

The suit was especially critical of the hospital's emergency ward, saying it is so poorly staffed that patients are often marooned there for days while they wait to be evaluated.

Sometimes the unit runs out of chairs, according to the lawsuit, forcing people to wait on foam mats or on the waiting room floor. The suit also claims that bathrooms are filthy and filled with flies, and that patients who complain too loudly are sometimes handcuffed, beaten or injected with psychotropic drugs.

The office of the city's medical examiner said it was still trying to determine why Green died. She had been brought to the hospital suffering from agitation and psychosis, city officials said.

[widgeon13]

Very sad statement about society today. What else can you say?

[URY914]

I'm sure this will be the norm when universal health care goes into effect.

[The Gaijin]

Woodhull in Brooklyn is unbelievable. The last time was my elderly neighbor who fell and cracked her head open. I rode in the ambulance (she was drunk) to help keep her calm. The ER was the craziest scene you could never imagine.. The very old, the very ill and very drugged out on rows and rows of beds parked in every square inch of floorspace. This case does not surprise me..

[widgeon13]

Originally Posted by URY914

I'm sure this will be the norm when universal health care goes into effect.

I don't believe it has anything to do with universal health care, it's about human decency. How could someone not see that a person on the floor needed attendance, even someone off the street could have helped if they had the least amount of decency. The people who allowed that to happen are the scum of the earth.

I can't comprehend that kind of behavior.

The time frame of her period in the emergency room (24 hours) is appalling and I suppose does relate to the healthcare providers but from the picture, it looks like literally one other person was there for the time she was on the floor. She would have gotten better care in the gutter of the street, at least more people would have been available for help.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

...I can't comprehend that kind of behavior.

Me neither, and I agree with the rest of your post too. Just saw a clip of it on TV...unbelievable!

[Rikao4]

yeah , alot of people helped the guy who got run down as well ,
folks drove around him.
I worked the Er for yrs, this not the norm..

Rika

[VINMAN]

I'm not suprised one bit with anything bad from that hospital. That is the worst one i have ever been in. My grndmother was in that hospital many times( not by choice,because that where her doctor was associted with). That place is disgusting, the staff and workers are horrible.
Like Gaijin said , the ER is filled with the dregs of society( not talking about the elderly).

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by URY914

I'm sure this will be the norm when universal health care goes into effect.

yup, healthcare will be understaffed with qualified people, more so than it is already, 10 hours worth of stuff to accomplish in 8, and be paid as though it were 6. Maybe not the norm, but much more common.

[The Gaijin]

"Green, who had been involuntarily committed the previous morning..."

This is more a case about how the mentally ill are treated than anything else.

[Jims5543]

I was told if you fake passing out you will get bumped to the front of the line in a hospital waiting room.

Some have even joked about that here in other threads, the first thing that came to mind when I say this on the news was that the hospital staff ignored an actor in the waiting room.

I would imagine they will never do that again.

[TerryBPP]

Originally Posted by Jim Cesiro

I was told if you fake passing out you will get bumped to the front of the line in a hospital waiting room.

Some have even joked about that here in other threads, the first thing that came to mind when I say this on the news was that the hospital staff ignored an actor in the waiting room.

I would imagine they will never do that again.

Acting blue should win her an Oscar.

[jyl]

According to snowman, everyone in the US has healthcare, because the uninsured can go to overcrowded ERs like this one, so what's the problem?

[Nathans_Dad]

Not to defend the actions of this facility, but this was not a general care ER. It was a psychiatric emergency center.

[VINMAN]

Rick, like i said previously. I know that hospital well. It is a *****hole