She didnt look dead to me?
 

:spock:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25588407/


updated 5:23 p.m. CT, Tues., July. 8, 2008
NEW YORK - The daughter of a woman who died unnoticed on the floor of a hospital psychiatric unit called Tuesday for criminal prosecution of the workers who did nothing to help her.

“What I want is justice,” Tecia Harrison said, hours after her family notified the hospital, the city and the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation that they intend to file a $25 million lawsuit. “Whoever committed a criminal act should be held responsible.”

Surveillance footage showed the death of Esmin Elizabeth Green, 49, who collapsed face-down on the floor of the Kings County Hospital Center’s psychiatric emergency waiting room, where she had been for nearly 24 hours.

She was largely ignored for about an hour. Security guards and a member of the Brooklyn hospital’s staff appear to notice her prone body at least three times without making any visible efforts to see if she needed help.

By the time a woman from the medical staff approached her, nudging Green’s body with her foot, the stricken patient was already dead.

Further reforms planned at hospital
Alan Aviles, president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which oversees Kings County Hospital, said in a statement that new staff, procedures and training since Green’s death on June 19 would likely be supplemented by further reforms.

“We failed Esmin Green and believe her family deserves fair and just compensation,” Aviles said. “HHC referred this matter to criminal enforcement and regulatory authorities on June 20. We have been cooperating and will continue to support any and all investigations.”

The city Department of Investigation is examining the case with the cooperation of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, said DOI spokeswoman Dianne Struzzi. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is also involved, and will decide whether to prosecute, Struzzi said. The medical examiner’s office has performed an autopsy and is doing further tests to determine the cause of death.


At 31, Harrison is the eldest of the six children Green left behind in Jamaica when she moved to the United States in 2000 to find work. Now, Harrison is left with questions about how her mother ended up involuntarily committed to the psychiatric ward — falling ill and dying hundreds of miles from her immediate family and with no one by her side.

“It was heartbreaking,” Harrison said of watching the video. “Something inside of me died right there with my mom.”

The family’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, accused the hospital staff of attempting to cover up neglect. In patient records marked 6 a.m. and 6:20 a.m., when surveillance footage shows Green on the floor, hospital staff wrote instead that she was “awake, up and about” or sitting quietly.

Six people were fired after her death in the psychiatric unit, which had already been a subject of complaints and lawsuits by advocates for the mentally ill. The Department of Justice began investigating allegations of patient mistreatment at the hospital earlier this year.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Neglect in psych units is a terribly overlooked issue, IMO.

Someone needs to step up, and something needs to be done, because unfortunately, behavior like this seems to be the rule in these units, not the exception.

That hospital has some stiff competition....

you can talk to the receptionist until you are blue in the face but they still wont admit you without proper insurance and identification...

No doubt true, Mr. Redrum_69.

But, the problem here is that she was already blue in the face.

FAX

Sounds like she had already been admitted.

Care homes for the elderly is another problem area. Very sad what happens to the weak in this country! These are the people we should be protecting.

Agreed.

QFT brother.

Amazing how many "accidental" breaks happen in homes for the elderly.

I'd like to see that on an Aflac commercial...

"Let me get you a nice cold glass of shut the hell up"

The elders are the ones that broke their backs for the next generation to have it easier. What do we do? Put them in some home and forget they exist, and go back to checking our stocks, ipod's, and porn

FYP

the hard truth is that if care providers were paid more, a lot more, better qualified and/or experienced people will take those jobs...

as it is, you don't get what you don't pay for...

(this is particularly true for nurses and nurses' aides - and yes, i am married to a nurse)