Posted on 07/01/2008 5:23:13 PM PDT by neverdem
They callously ignored her.
Esmin Green is seen in these infuriating images collapsing on the psychiatric emergency-room floor at Kings County Hospital - stared at by one worker, ignored by a security guard, and finally nudged by a health-care staffer on June 19.
She lay there for an hour before doctors and nurses snapped to attention and tried to revive the 49-year-old Jamaica native.
It was too late.
The shocking video was released by lawyers suing KCH in federal court on an unrelated matter.
"I heard about it and it's horrible how she died like that," said Green's landlady, Beatrice Wallace, of East 94th Street in Brooklyn.
She'd lived there until just days before she died.
The needless death resulted in the immediate firings of the director of psychiatry, the doctor on duty and the director of security, said a spokeswoman for the city's Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs the municipal hospital.
Two nurses and a security guard were suspended pending hearings.
"We are all shocked and distressed by this situation," HHC President Alan D. Aviles said in a statement last night. "It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care."
He added that "as a result of this tragic incident, we will put into place additional and significant reforms" to protect psych patients.
A federal court order will be signed today, directing the hospital to assemble a search team to fill the spots of the fired staff, and establishing guidelines to reduce the waiting time at the emergency room.
HHC said Green was brought to the psychiatric e.r. by EMS medics on the morning of June 18, suffering from agitation and psychosis.
The patient refused medical review and was admitted against her will.
She was left in the e.r.,...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Only SOME? How about everyone who saw her lying there?
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.Agitated delirium. Crack.
P.S. It is a GOVERNMENT RUN HOSPITAL.
Edmund Drummond: So at 9:15 this morning I rang for my nurse...Watch it and think about Hillarycare.
Bock: Rang for your nurse?
Edmund Drummond: To ensure one full hour of uninterrupted privacy.
I was just about to post this myself- that was disgusting to watch.
If it was, they would have said it already. It's not hard to test for. I'm betting on misdiagnosis or a prescribed adverse drug reaction.
Great. And I'm sure there will be plenty of competent, dedicated people lining up to apply for these jobs, which entail managing the unmanageable with both hands tied behind your back by idiotic laws and regulations, while working long hours in a very dangerous neighborhood.
and while i totally believe that security guards would do this, the doctor's actions surprised me. the ones who work at these places are total bleeding hearts usually. which makes me think this doc knew this woman and simply dismissed this as an act.
Government-provided health care at its "finest," brought to you by the Democrat Party. It's not called the Donkey (Jackass) Party for nothing.
The sad thing is, if this poor soul was a voter, she probably voted for Democrats.
It is established in law that if one is ignored in a hospital initially -- that is, no acknowledgement of injury is made -- that neglect even leading to death is not malpractice.
At least, this is how it was explained to me by probably the only honest lawyer in Florida, who counseled me when a hospital ignored my seriously injured son (who thankfully did not die).
The first question was "who is your insurance provider" and when the answer was, "I'm self insured" we were told to wait. And wait. And wait. Until my son threw up in the triage nurse's face.
By that time I had raised so much hell trying to get my son treated that I was arrested for disturbing the peace (hence the discussion with the attorney later).
Yes, it is a strategy. Maybe something like this will begin to put a stop to it.
But, until then, I have, of course, lost all faith in the hospital business.
Fortunately, my son was transferred to a private hospital in another town and the subject of the bill did not even come up until we were checking him out. It was like night and day.
When I had to have hip surgery, due to a stress fracture, I was treated so badly, I felt like a prisoner in a concentration camp. I was left on the porta-potty for two hours the day after surgery. (They forgot me.) I could not use the ‘call’ button or even push the button for my pain meds. It was excruciating.
I was not given a sponge bath for five days. My teeth were not brushed for five days. The food was totally inedible - and in five days, I lost 18 pounds.
On the fifth day, after literally begging for a shower, I was again “forgotten” in the storage room shower, in a wheelchair, unable to move because of the pain meds. Two hours. No curtain - no towel - no shower stall. Just a shower head squirting me for two hours, surrounded with walkers, canes, wheelchairs, and equipment in a huge room.
The doctor had put a sign on the door (at my request): “No one is to touch this patient without first washing their hands”. (I seriously feared MRSA.) In five days, only twice did I ever see anyone wash their hands. They would walk in with gloves already on, and attend to my surgical area. What (and who) did those gloves touch before they entered my room and removed my bandages?
Every day there, I begged for fresh fruit. The day I was to be discharged, the dietician came in to my room with a banana in one hand, an apple in the other. He held them up, and said, “I hear you want fresh fruit. Which one do you want?”
It was the biggest nightmare of my life - and I will never enter a hospital again (electively). My knee has been bone on bone for over five years - you think I would volunteer to go back there again? It will be bone on bone for the rest of my life, rather than endure the horrible treatment again, that I suffered at the hands of uncaring, incompetent, health care workers.
And here is what really angers me. Guess what those five days cost my insurance company? Over $10,000 a day!
Our hospitals are in serious trouble, folks.
“Government-provided health care at its “finest,” brought to you by the Democrat Party. It’s not called the Donkey (Jackass) Party for nothing.
The sad thing is, if this poor soul was a voter, she probably voted for Democrats.”
It said she had been there 24 hours when she fell off the chair.
They also lied about the whole thing, but it was recorded so I think that
is enough for some serious jail time and not just firings.
I forgot to add, HillaryCare=ObamaCare.
Heaven help us.
Ye gawds, my sympathies to you for that nightmare!
How about giving Freepers here a heads up on what hospital that was so we can be aware, and pass the word to anyone who might be headed for that chamber of horrors?!?
Good luck, hope you’re mending up and staying that way!
Go here and you will know
Caught on tape: Hospital patient left to die
See post #1
One has to keep in mind that this was a psychiatric ER.
While somebody throwing themselves on the floor or being sprawled out on the floor at any other ER would immediately raise alarms, maybe having psychiatric patients on the floor was something to be expected from that population.
Imagine being at a restaurant at 7:00 PM and somebody is sprawled on the floor. Something is definitely wrong.
Imagine being on a downtown street at 7:00 PM a block away from that restaurant and a homeless man is lying on the sidewalk with his eyes closed. How many times have we walked past such a person without thinking twice about it?
I saw the tapes.
Freakin unbelievable.
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