NEW YORK, July 2, 2008
Emergency Room Death Sparks Outrage
NYC Woman's Videotaped Death Recalls Similar Incident Last Year In Los Angeles
-
Play CBS Video
Video
ER Deaths Spark Outrage
Shocking video showing the deaths of two emergency room patients and the failure of staff to adequately respond has sparked accusations of hospital negligence. Bill Whitaker reports.
-
Video
Psych Patient Dies On ER Floor
"Caught On Tape": Disturbing surveillance video shows a psychiatric patient struggled and died on the floor of a New York emergency room after being ignored by hospital staff for almost an hour.
-
Photo
In this still photo taken from video provided by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Esmin Green lies face down on the floor in the psychiatric ward of the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., Thursday, June 19, 2008. Green, 49, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours when she toppled from her chair at 5:32 a.m. and lay writhing, face down on the floor. Within an hour she was dead. (AP PHOTO)
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 incident in New York recalls a similar situation involving another dying patient last year in Los Angeles, also caught on tape by security cameras, in which a woman collapsed in an emergency room lobby. Edith Isabel Rodriguez writhed on the floor for 45 minutes while hospital personnel stood idly by and a janitor mopped the floor around her, The Los Angeles Times reports. Excerpts of that video were made public after Green's death in Brooklyn shocked New York City this week.
Watch the Los Angeles Times video:
An attorney representing Rodriguez's children, Franklin Casco Jr., said the family had been pressing Los Angles County to view the video before it was sent anonymously to the Times this week.
"My clients and I have been working very hard with the county of Los Angeles to at least view this so they can have some form of closure of their mom's death so they can put this behind them, and the county has refused," he told the newspaper. "The county has refused to provide us with anything. It seems like they're attempting to cover up the whole situation."
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 sign off on the agreement Wednesday.
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. During both of those times, Green was either in her death throes or already dead.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said 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."
HHC's president, Alan Aviles, said in a statement that he was shocked and distressed by the situation and promised a thorough investigation.
"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.
According to the lawsuit, patients at the hospital "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.
Green was born in Jamaica, and the city has agreed to fly her body home for burial.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Video and Galleries from U.S.
-
Video
Kidney Transplant Chain
-
Video
Taxing The Rich
-
Video
Cash For Clunkers
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 215 CommentsPosted by dragonwagon5 at 12:03 PM : Jul 02, 2008
Of course they do because they are morons they say what there masters tell them.
from what ... 24 hours? this is absurd ... maybe they need more than four months to get to a 10 hour median waiting time.
people live differantly in big city''s and we in smalltowns live the way internet people like to see human beings live. get over it they will never change.
its there way of life. its no big deal to them to see people lieing on the floor where we would have died to help this person.
Are they running a Nazi camp down there ?
The fired employees have been absorbed in another facility under the same management. Well, that''s a fitting punishment huh ...
Posted by FAITH_IN_W at 12:09 PM : Jul 02, 2008
"Liberal rubbish"... What exactly is liberal rubbish about leaving a woman to die while waiting for care, she then actually dies, and her body is left unattended while hospital personnel ignore the body.
If this is an example of hospitals doing the best they can... then it''s time they did better.
And for a previous poster, hospitals do NOT do the best they can. Private hospitals run with minimum possible staffs while owners and shareholders pocket the profits. And you don''t even want to think about subjecting someone to a public hospital.
Infections run rampant, because nurses can''t be bothered to wash properly between patients. Patients receive the wrong medications and the wrong dosages because the can''t be bothered to double check work that is critical to the patients'' health .... and life.
Trust me, unless you have a life threatening condition, or a chronic condidtion that may progress without treatment, you don''t want to roll the dice for your life by being admitted to a hospital.
If what you''ve got won''t kill you, they''ll try to find something that will! LOL
SCARY.
------------------------------
The founding documents have now been privatized. Freedom is no longer free.
The day we stop suing the crapp out of doctors, will be the day they''ll actually give a crapp about us"
You don''t even know what a "Universal Health" system is.
What is an "outrage", is your thinking on "Universal Healthcare". The problem is most people don''t even know what it really is. And it isn''t the same in all countries. Here in Canada, we all have healthcare and we all get the BEST healthcare.
Posted by dragonwagon5
..............
Keep spreading the hate. You''ll be surprised what it brings.
Posted by zoe2006
.........
Quit bragging about yourself
Posted by dragonwagon5
............
It''s a government hospital you idiot so it''s socialized government medicine moron.
I''''ll leave that up to the great divider. (err decider)
Posted by dragonwagon5
...........
The divider choice came from your brain and fingertips. Enjoy your hate and it''s consequences.
Posted by Latrocinor at 01:06 PM
"The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the hospital,"
Read the article lamo.
Posted by dragonwagon5 at 01:10 PM : Jul 02, 2008
--------------
Good Lord Latrocinor, you''re even stupid over on this story. How do you get around so much?
you can''t make that comparison. You''re a tiny country that nurses off an economic monster (us). Take the good and throw away the rest.
Without us, you''d be running around grass huts with bones in your noses.
Without us, you''d be running around grass huts with bones in your noses.
Posted by billpl at 01:14 PM : Jul 02, 2008
---------
Typical RINO. You make it up as you go along, you say it and expect people to believe it just because you said it. What a hoot.
[Posted by billpl at 12:51 PM : Jul 02, 2008]
studies actually show that people who sue their doctors for malpractice sue them because they don''t like them. the doctors they like could be just as culpible as those they sue ... but they don''t want to ... or wont sue the doctors they like.
so maybe they sue because the doctor doesn''t give a cr@p ... the patient picks up on this ... and that''s why they don''t like them.
The ethics of these workers reflects the priorities and ethics of their supervisors and employers. This pattern is particularly true in professions that traditionally employed women in caregiver roles (hospitals, nursing homes, schools, etc). Big business and health care don''t mix. Big business is concerned with profit. Poorly paid and fewer workers mean larger profits. They hire a minimum of qualified people, generally underpay all their employees, with the exception of doctors and top administrators, and the results are predictable. The people on the lowest rungs of the ladder are overworked, underpaid, and resentful. That doesn''t excuse this kind of gross neglect and indifference, but it does give some insight.
When workers aren''t valued and allowed to share in the financial success of industries, everyone suffers...no matter what the industry.
I recently had a severe ulcer attack, vomiting blood, blood in the stool, unable to hold down food or water for 1 1/2 weeks. I finally could not stand the pain or nausea any longer and made my way to the e.r. As I entered the e.r. my family doctor was there, he ask me what the matter was then told the e.r. staff to take good care of me as I was one of his. He could not treat me in the e.r. because the hospital was paying an e.r. doctor. There were no other patients in the e.r. at this time. The nurse took my information, vital signs and took me to another room to wait for the doctor. I was in pain, nauseated, and miserable. I waited for about an hour for the doctor to finally come in, ask me the same questions the nurse asked, and ordered blood drawn and an injection for the nausea. Still in pain, I was sent home. Two days later I was sent a letter, not a statement, which said I owed $1,287.00 for e.r. services. No itemized statement. Two days after I received the letter I received a call wanting to know when I was going to pay the bill. I have refused to pay until I receive an itemized statement of the charges which I feel were exorbitant. I am ready for Universal Health Care.
Posted by EdgarDebbins at 01:32 PM : Jul 02, 2008
-----------
Now THAT, was funny!
Yes, you do. That is why they are there and it is their job.
You do know e.r. stands for emergency room, right?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by dragonwagon5 at 01:33 PM : Jul 02, 2008
---------
sid is a blog troll that gets kicked off every week only to reappear like lice. Best Ignored. Attention seeker.
Yes, you do. That is why they are there and it is their job.
Posted by nannydue at 01:35 PM : Jul 02, 2008
------------
sid is a blog troll. best ignored. Says things just to get a rise.
Monster? That is about the only thing you got right. And for us being a "tiny" country, we seem to be doing a lot better than you. The U.S. is also dependant on Canada for a lot of things.
"Without us, you''''d be running around grass huts with bones in your noses." Posted by billpl at 01:14 PM : Jul 02, 2008
If that is what your inflated ego needs to believe, go ahead.
It is a good thing that I have met some "nice" people on here, otherwise I would be thinking all Americans are idiots, like you.
Probably an illegal trying to slam the free medical care.
Posted by FloydZepp2 at 01:35 PM : Jul 02, 2008
LOL!!! You should talk. What happened to FloydZepp? You forget your passwd again?
Thank you, dragonwagon5.
Similar kind of incident where a man was struck by a car and lay on road, nobody doing anything... all were non white
another incident, 7-8 well build in their 20, non-white men were beating a 78 year old weak man badly, all the passer by and ''watcher'' were non-white. it was caught on tape.
Lets praise Jessi Jackson, Lets praise Sharpton, lets praise NAACP. we all love them
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 215 Comments