From the New York Times, Newsday:

A surveillance camera at a public psychiatric hospital in Brooklyn has recorded the death of a patient who collapsed onto the floor after waiting 24 hours to be seen. Forty-nine-year-old Esmin Elizabeth Green died after laying on the floor for about an hour while hospital staff members looked at her and walked on. One staff member prodded Green with her foot. An elapsed time video of the last hour of Green’s life is here.

Since the video has surfaced, New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation has agreed to increase the monitoring of patients at the King’s County Hospital Center psychiatric ward. The agreement is part of the settlement of a lawsuit, filed by the ACLU, that accused the hospital of keeping psychiatric patients in filthy conditions, systematically neglecting them, and drugging them into submission.

Criminal charges are also being considered.

UPDATE: Family of woman left to die on a Kings County psych ward floor settles with city for $2 million — New York Daily News

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under criminal justice, health care, hospitals, law, mental health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.