Death on psych ward leads to reforms(N.Y. hospital staff ignored patient as she lay dying)
- From: rpautrey2 <rpautrey2@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:40:19 -0700 (PDT)
Article:Death on psych ward leads to reforms / N.Y. hospital st:/c/a/
2008/07/01/MN1411ICD3.DTL
Death on psych ward leads to reforms
N.Y. hospital staff ignored patient as she lay dying
David B. Caruso, Associated Press
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
(07-02) 04:00 PDT New York - --
City hospital officials agreed in court Tuesday to implement reforms
at a psychiatric ward where surveillance footage showed 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, including
security personnel and members of the medical staff.
The psychiatric unit at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn had already
been a subject of complaints by advocates for the mentally ill.
A state agency, the New York State Mental Hygiene Legal Service, and
the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit a year ago, calling
the psychiatric center "a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and
danger."
Both sides in the dispute went before a federal judge Tuesday to
jointly file papers in which the hospital system agreed to a series of
reforms. Under the agreement, patients in the waiting room will now be
checked every 15 minutes.
Over the next four months, the hospital will attempt to shorten the
median waiting time to around 10 hours. A judge is scheduled to
approve the agreement today.
The tape of Green's wait has also been turned over to prosecutors.
Green's medical records raised the possibility that someone might have
tried to cover up the circumstances of the death.
One notation said that at 6 a.m., she was "awake, up and about" and
had just used the restroom. Another said that at 6:20 a.m., she was
sitting quietly in the waiting room and had a normal blood pressure.
At both of those times, Green was either in her death throes or
already dead.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that he was disgusted by the tape, and
that the actions of the hospital staff were unacceptable.
"I think what they said is, 'Oh well, people sleep on the floor all
the time, and I didn't pay any attention,' " he said. "They shouldn't
be sleeping on the floor ... and you should pay attention."
Health and Hospitals Corporation President Alan Aviles said in a
statement that he was shocked and distressed by the situation and
promised a thorough investigation.
The office of the city's medical examiner said it is still trying to
determine why Green died. She had been brought to the hospital
suffering from agitation and psychosis, city officials said.
Green was born in Jamaica, and the city has agreed to fly her body
home for burial.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/02/MN1411ICD3.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle
© 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/02/MN1411ICD3.DTL&type=printable
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