Esmin Green died on the hospital floor

[w8ng4msrgt]

Ignored Psych Patient Dies on Hospital Floor

By DAVID SCHOETZ
July 1, 2008

Even pared down to a few minutes, the hour-long surveillance video is disturbing.
Surveillance footage shows woman falling to the floor of a N.Y. hospital.

At 5:32 a.m. June 19, a woman in a hospital gown in the waiting area of the psychiatric emergency room of a New York City hospital topples first to her knees before collapsing on her face.

A full hour passes. Other people stream in and out of the waiting room, including hospital security guards. The woman writes something on the ground before going completely still. Finally, someone takes notice and alerts the staff. But by then, at 6:36 a.m., the woman is already dead.

The woman, 49-year-old Esmin Green, died on the floor of the waiting room at the Kings County Hospital Center Psychiatric Emergency Department. Her exact cause of death has not been released.

The native of Jamaica, who had been waiting for a bed when she collapsed, had been involuntarily admitted the previous day for "agitation and psychosis," according to the City Health and Hospital Corp., which acknowledged June 20 that Green had been left unattended on the ground for an hour.

Rest of Story and video (http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=5284151&page=1)

[Pirelli Jones]

I want to know what she wrote on the floor and if destruction of county property charges will be forthcoming posthumously?

[Pete Bondurant]

Government run health-care...something to look forward to, eh?

[nurseronda]

Being a nurse, this post made me very angry. How can a hospital staff just walk by a patient in trouble like this? I was glad that the hospital did fire the staff members who let this woman die. I feel so sorry for the patients family for losing a family member, but you know one thing, they are going to be provided for after they win the lawsuit that will come out of this situation.

[RaVen Blackehart]

The family of a woman who died on a hospital floor, struggling to get up while staffers ignored her, has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city for $2 million.

But the family of Esmin Green, whose death was recorded on a hospital security video, still is awaiting a full investigation into what happened at the Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn, family lawyer Sanford Rubenstein said Wednesday.

"What remains most important to this family is the criminal culpability for those responsible for what happened and those who attempted to cover it up," Rubenstein said.

Green, a 49-year-old psychiatric patient, had been in a waiting room at the city-owned hospital for nearly 24 hours when she collapsed on June 19, 2008. Neither fellow patients nor the hospital's staff moved to help her, even as she thrashed her legs on the floor and tried to get up. Two security guards and a member of the hospital's medical staff can be seen on the video stopping to look at her briefly before walking away.

Green stopped moving after about 30 minutes. She was on the floor for an hour before a nurse checked her pulse. The medical examiner said she suffered from blood clots.

Six hospital employees lost their jobs over the incident, and the video prompted national outrage when it became public soon after.

The U.S. Department of Justice cited Green's death among other abuses in a February report that documented a pattern of what investigators said was "inadequate care," violence among patients and sexual abuse at Kings County.

That report became public when Alan Aviles, president of the city's Health and Hospitals Corp., announced reforms at the hospital including the replacement of its top two administrators and the addition of 200 medical personnel to its 600-member staff.

Aviles said the improvements would shorten the average time patients wait in the psychiatric emergency room to eight hours, down from 27 hours.

Aviles said the settlement with the Green family was "not meant to put a value on a life and the loss of a loved one."

http://www.buffalonews.com/260/story/684767.html

[TheMorningStar]

I'm not much of a fan of lawsuits, but in this case it was the only way a place like this would ever make sure this didn't happen again.

[Hellsbells]

Two charged for letting patient Esmin Green die in Kings County Hospital psych ward


Two Kings County Hospital workers are being prosecuted for letting a patient die in the psych ward - and covering up her death, the Daily News has learned.

Esmin Green, 49, was recorded on a surveillance camera tape lying facedown in the emergency room for nearly an hour on June 19, 2008, ignored by staffers and security personnel.

Nursing aide Easton Royal, 53, allegedly wrote in the observation sheet that Green was doing fine at 6 a.m. - in the midst of the excruciating 57 minutes the dying woman spent on the floor, according to court documents.

Royal was arrested Tuesday, charged with reckless endangerment and falsifying business records. She was arraigned at Brooklyn Criminal Court and released without bail.

Another nurse had pleaded guilty last month to similar charges, a source said.

Her name was not released, but a previous report by the city's Department of Investigation mentioned that one nurse, identified only as Gonzalo, admitted to making false entries on Green's progress notes after she died.

"All those who are in any way responsible for this wrongful death and coverup should be brought to justice," said Sanford Rubenstein, the lawyer who represented Green's daughter in reaching a $2 million settlement with the city

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff519/hellsbells42/alg_kings-county-esmin-green.jpg

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/03/18/2011-03-18_2_charged_in_psych_ward_death.html

[ImmortalOne]

And like the wonderful American citizens they were - all the other patients also ignored the situation and let her die. How good to know that Individualism is so successful in America.

[Mommyof2]

And like the wonderful American citizens they were - all the other patients also ignored the situation and let her die. How good to know that Individualism is so successful in America.

I am with you on that.. Can't believe nobody could be bothered to help.

The last time I was in the hospital they sent me to the waiting room. I was in so much pain I couldn't even stand to sit. I was standing in a corner bawling my eyes out and all the people in the waiting room were staring at me as if I was annoying them. I even think somebody complained because five minutes after I was put in the waiting room I was given a private room. I got some even dirtier looks when I got called ahead of all the others waiting.

[ImmortalOne]

Mommyof2
That is disgusting. What happened to standard compassion? Why wouldn't someone offer their seat for you to sit? People really make me angry. The "It Doesn't Concern Me" attitude has been part of what is wrong with this country for so long that when people die and NO ONE helps its a sign of how far our society really has fallen.

I did a report that more than %50 of people who WITNESS child abuse do nothing. WTF?! That is just like this situation. "It doesn't concern me. Its none of my business." assholes.

[62julietandvoid]

Holzer hospital has/d gone downhill in their care, especially the ER. My granny always was offended when I would say bad things about them because she retired from there, until she had her own experience, and it pissed a lot of her friends off who may or may not have a little pull in the community. But she fell/tripped in the city park and ran into an metal light pole. 78 years old, she had: 2 clean breaks, one on each side of her mandible, and one side of her mandible was shattered where it hinges, and had blood all down her front side. We sat there for 4 hours in a not too busy waiting room, granny finally said let's go home. Didn't even get x-rays, nothing. She went back the next day and they got her in right away but they sent her to OSH for emergency surgery. It was really bad breaks and Holzer realized they eff'ed up.

I had to go there yesterday, I wasn't happy about it but it was urgent. I had a mildly long wait but once they got down to business i felt a lot better and they were really, really nice, kind & even though the RN let out the F word(loved it) professional. I was pleasantly surprised.

But I guess all in all it's who is on duty. I know around here PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADDICTIONS have increased A LOT & they plug up the ER/s. Right now in this general tri-state area drug addicts(especially PILL HEADS) are stealing shit left and right. It's like a plague. When a lot of people go to the ER & there's not HIGHLY NOTICEABLE i guess you could get kind of really paranoid, numb and stuff. Unprofessional but it does happen. I don't think a lot of medical staff are really trained to deal with MR/DD, mentally ill & otherwise unstable people either. Stigmas.

Look at Brittany Spears for example. She flipped a lil to a lot during that spell she had for example when she shaved her head. Something was going on with her mentally &/or emotionally and people pointed and laughed, made fun of her/it, etc. People acted like her tripping with her child, she was so horrible. wtf People seek out others to single out, not like, hate, not care for. It's disgusting.

I know I've taken my jabs at seniors & probably someone I don't remember. But it was facetious statements unless it was someone evil.

[Kindly One]

And like the wonderful American citizens they were - all the other patients also ignored the situation and let her die. How good to know that Individualism is so successful in America..

Um... I'm not sure I agree with blaming the other patients sitting in the room - it was the psychiatric emergency room, after all. Lord knows what was going on with them. The nurses and security staff? Definitely blameworthy.

[CasperGirl]

those people just sitting there shouldn't have their stupid faces blurred out

[Kindly One]

those people just sitting there shouldn't have their stupid faces blurred out

You are so right! And while we're at it, why not do a nifty little guided tour through the wards and throw peanuts at the other mental patients?