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Hospital video shows no one helped dying woman
Hospital video shows no one helped dying woman
Hospital video shows no one helped dying woman
BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 30th 2008, 11:32 PM
A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at
Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security
guard, did nothing to help.
After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the
indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the
Daily News.
Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have
falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided
Esmin Green before she died.
"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this
could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the
New York Civil Liberties Union.
"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to
recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."
The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that
has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.
A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse
of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation
by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's civil rights unit before the June 19
death.
Two different security guards spotted Green, a native of the island of
Jamaica, prone on the floor and did nothing, the tape shows. They have
been fired, along with four other staffers.
Green, 49, taken to the unit for "agitation," keels over out of her
chair at 5:32a.m., according to the time stamp on the video. She had
been sitting about 3feet from an observation window. Two other
patients were in the room.
Green is lying facedown on the floor, her legs splayed, when a
security guard strolls by at 5:53 a.m., looks at her for about 20
seconds and then walks away.
She is writhing on the floor, thrashing her legs, about 6 a.m., when
her medical chart contends she was "awake, up and about, went to the
bathroom."
Green rolls on her back at 6:04a.m. She stops moving at 6:08 a.m., but
two minutes later a security guard pushed his chair into camera view.
He never gets out of the chair, but looks at Green and scoots away. A
female patient who was in and out of the room finally brings a clinic
staffer to check the woman and a crash cart is summoned.
The medical chart claims she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting
room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead. The cause of death
is still under investigation.
"We are shocked and distressed by this situation," the Health and
Hospitals Corp. said in a statement.
jmarzulli@nydailynews,com
© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews,com . All rights reserved.
URL: http :// www .nydailynews,com /ny local/brooklyn/2008/06/30/2008-06-30 hospital video shows no one helped dying.html
Hospital video shows no one helped dying woman
BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 30th 2008, 11:32 PM
A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at
Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security
guard, did nothing to help.
After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the
indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the
Daily News.
Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have
falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided
Esmin Green before she died.
"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this
could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the
New York Civil Liberties Union.
"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to
recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."
The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that
has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.
A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse
of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation
by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's civil rights unit before the June 19
death.
Two different security guards spotted Green, a native of the island of
Jamaica, prone on the floor and did nothing, the tape shows. They have
been fired, along with four other staffers.
Green, 49, taken to the unit for "agitation," keels over out of her
chair at 5:32a.m., according to the time stamp on the video. She had
been sitting about 3feet from an observation window. Two other
patients were in the room.
Green is lying facedown on the floor, her legs splayed, when a
security guard strolls by at 5:53 a.m., looks at her for about 20
seconds and then walks away.
She is writhing on the floor, thrashing her legs, about 6 a.m., when
her medical chart contends she was "awake, up and about, went to the
bathroom."
Green rolls on her back at 6:04a.m. She stops moving at 6:08 a.m., but
two minutes later a security guard pushed his chair into camera view.
He never gets out of the chair, but looks at Green and scoots away. A
female patient who was in and out of the room finally brings a clinic
staffer to check the woman and a crash cart is summoned.
The medical chart claims she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting
room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead. The cause of death
is still under investigation.
"We are shocked and distressed by this situation," the Health and
Hospitals Corp. said in a statement.
jmarzulli@nydailynews,com
© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews,com . All rights reserved.
URL: http :// www .nydailynews,com /ny local/brooklyn/2008/06/30/2008-06-30 hospital video shows no one helped dying.html
Re: Hospital video shows no one helped dying woman
Originally posted: July 2, 2008
Esmin Green's death: the hospital chief responds
Many readers are outraged by the tragic case of Esmin Green, who died
in June on the floor of a Brooklyn hospital after collapsing on the
ground and being ignored by staff for nearly an hour.
For those of you following the story, here's a copy of the memo that
went out yesterday from the president of New York City's Health and
Hospitals Corporation. That organization runs Kings County Hospital,
where the incident occurred.
Subject: Death in Kings County Hospital Center Psychiatric Emergecy
Room
1 July 2008
A Message from
HHC President Alan D. Aviles
To All HHC Staff:
On June 19th, a 49-year old patient died in the waiting area of the
Kings County Hospital Center Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency
Program (CPEP). She was found face down on the floor and unresponsive
at about 6:30 a.m. Efforts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful.
A surveillance tape of the waiting area revealed that she had tumbled
out of her chair onto the floor a full hour earlier. She lay there,
her head under a waiting room chair. During that one-hour period, two
of the hospital's security officers and an attending psychiatrist saw
her on the floor. None of these individuals went to her aid or
examined her condition. A nurse entered the waiting area after the
patient had been on the floor for nearly an hour, approached the
patient and nudged the patient's leg with her foot, as if she thought
the patient might be asleep. When the patient did not respond, that
nurse failed to examine the patient and left the area to summon
another nurse. The second nurse examined the patient and ultimately
called a team to attempt resuscitation.
To make matters worse, the second nurse falsely documented in the
medical chart that she had checked on the patient within the previous
30 minutes and that the patient was ambulating and apparently fine.
The surveillance tape demonstrates otherwise.
After reviewing the surveillance tape, we notified the State Health
Department, the Office of Mental Health, law enforcement authorities
and other regulatory agencies about the incident and supplied them
with a copy of the tape, as well as the patient's medical records.
We took immediate disciplinary action, including termination, against
the staff who failed to go to the patient's aid, the nurse who
falsified the chart, and certain senior managers. We issued a public
statement at the time, describing the incident and the disciplinary
actions taken.
As required by law, we also turned the surveillance tape over to the
plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against Kings County Hospital Center
last year alleging substandard care in its psychiatric emergency
department and its psychiatric inpatient units. Yesterday, the
plaintiffs released the surveillance tape to WNBC-TV, which broadcast
it repeatedly during its local evening news and national morning
program. News stories also appeared in major daily newspapers today.
Portions of the surveillance tape also were posted by WNBC to its Web
site - www .wnbc,com . Anyone who views the tape excerpts will be
appalled by the lack of compassion and professionalism exhibited by
the five staff members directly involved.
I bring this to the attention of all staff not just because it is an
incident that will receive intense public scrutiny, but because it is
a shameful event - contrary to everything that we stand for -- that we
must acknowledge and confront together. How is it possible that five
members of the HHC family could fail a patient in our care so
completely and so callously?
I do not have the answer, but I do know that we are going to muster
every resource at our disposal to ensure that something like this
never ever happens again. We have agreed to place ourselves
voluntarily under a court order that requires close monitoring of all
patients in the Kings County CPEP, with a clinician dedicated to
checking on each waiting patient once every fifteen minutes. We also
have agreed to use our best efforts to minimize the time that patients
wait in the CPEP for release, admission or placement. I have appointed
Dr. Ann Sullivan, the Senior Vice President for our Queens Health
Network and a well-respected psychiatric administrator, as an interim
administrator to work closely with Jean Leon to take any and all steps
necessary and feasible to ensure timely and responsive emergency and
inpatient psychiatric care at Kings County.
I know that HHC shoulders the heavy and difficult responsibility of
providing nearly 40% of the emergency and inpatient services in our
City, predominately to the most seriously mentally ill patients. I
know that what occurred on June 19th does not reflect the quality of
care rendered at Kings County generally or across the other facilities
that comprise HHC. I know that the vast majority of staff care deeply
for our patients. I know that many staff perform superbly and at times
heroically every day throughout our system and that many lives
aresaved as a result of their hard work and dedication. And I know
that one aberrant tragedy does not negate the world of good performed
by HHC staff all year long.
However, none of that can alter the brutal and shocking reality of
what happened on June 19th, the sorrow and shame that it evokes, and
the necessity to ensure that it never happens again.
URL: http :// newsblogs.chicagotribune,com /triage/2008/07/esmin-greens-de.html
The Chicago Tribune
Originally posted: July 2, 2008
Esmin Green's death: the hospital chief responds
Many readers are outraged by the tragic case of Esmin Green, who died
in June on the floor of a Brooklyn hospital after collapsing on the
ground and being ignored by staff for nearly an hour.
For those of you following the story, here's a copy of the memo that
went out yesterday from the president of New York City's Health and
Hospitals Corporation. That organization runs Kings County Hospital,
where the incident occurred.
Subject: Death in Kings County Hospital Center Psychiatric Emergecy
Room
1 July 2008
A Message from
HHC President Alan D. Aviles
To All HHC Staff:
On June 19th, a 49-year old patient died in the waiting area of the
Kings County Hospital Center Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency
Program (CPEP). She was found face down on the floor and unresponsive
at about 6:30 a.m. Efforts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful.
A surveillance tape of the waiting area revealed that she had tumbled
out of her chair onto the floor a full hour earlier. She lay there,
her head under a waiting room chair. During that one-hour period, two
of the hospital's security officers and an attending psychiatrist saw
her on the floor. None of these individuals went to her aid or
examined her condition. A nurse entered the waiting area after the
patient had been on the floor for nearly an hour, approached the
patient and nudged the patient's leg with her foot, as if she thought
the patient might be asleep. When the patient did not respond, that
nurse failed to examine the patient and left the area to summon
another nurse. The second nurse examined the patient and ultimately
called a team to attempt resuscitation.
To make matters worse, the second nurse falsely documented in the
medical chart that she had checked on the patient within the previous
30 minutes and that the patient was ambulating and apparently fine.
The surveillance tape demonstrates otherwise.
After reviewing the surveillance tape, we notified the State Health
Department, the Office of Mental Health, law enforcement authorities
and other regulatory agencies about the incident and supplied them
with a copy of the tape, as well as the patient's medical records.
We took immediate disciplinary action, including termination, against
the staff who failed to go to the patient's aid, the nurse who
falsified the chart, and certain senior managers. We issued a public
statement at the time, describing the incident and the disciplinary
actions taken.
As required by law, we also turned the surveillance tape over to the
plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against Kings County Hospital Center
last year alleging substandard care in its psychiatric emergency
department and its psychiatric inpatient units. Yesterday, the
plaintiffs released the surveillance tape to WNBC-TV, which broadcast
it repeatedly during its local evening news and national morning
program. News stories also appeared in major daily newspapers today.
Portions of the surveillance tape also were posted by WNBC to its Web
site - www .wnbc,com . Anyone who views the tape excerpts will be
appalled by the lack of compassion and professionalism exhibited by
the five staff members directly involved.
I bring this to the attention of all staff not just because it is an
incident that will receive intense public scrutiny, but because it is
a shameful event - contrary to everything that we stand for -- that we
must acknowledge and confront together. How is it possible that five
members of the HHC family could fail a patient in our care so
completely and so callously?
I do not have the answer, but I do know that we are going to muster
every resource at our disposal to ensure that something like this
never ever happens again. We have agreed to place ourselves
voluntarily under a court order that requires close monitoring of all
patients in the Kings County CPEP, with a clinician dedicated to
checking on each waiting patient once every fifteen minutes. We also
have agreed to use our best efforts to minimize the time that patients
wait in the CPEP for release, admission or placement. I have appointed
Dr. Ann Sullivan, the Senior Vice President for our Queens Health
Network and a well-respected psychiatric administrator, as an interim
administrator to work closely with Jean Leon to take any and all steps
necessary and feasible to ensure timely and responsive emergency and
inpatient psychiatric care at Kings County.
I know that HHC shoulders the heavy and difficult responsibility of
providing nearly 40% of the emergency and inpatient services in our
City, predominately to the most seriously mentally ill patients. I
know that what occurred on June 19th does not reflect the quality of
care rendered at Kings County generally or across the other facilities
that comprise HHC. I know that the vast majority of staff care deeply
for our patients. I know that many staff perform superbly and at times
heroically every day throughout our system and that many lives
aresaved as a result of their hard work and dedication. And I know
that one aberrant tragedy does not negate the world of good performed
by HHC staff all year long.
However, none of that can alter the brutal and shocking reality of
what happened on June 19th, the sorrow and shame that it evokes, and
the necessity to ensure that it never happens again.
URL: http :// newsblogs.chicagotribune,com /triage/2008/07/esmin-greens-de.html
The Chicago Tribune
