Home  News National News Jamaican patient dies on hospital floor
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Jamaican patient dies on hospital floor |
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Saturday, 05 July 2008 |
A Jamaica-born woman died on an emergency room floor of a New York City hospital recently while staff walked by for more than an hour later without attending to her, surveillance footage released Tuesday showed.
The incident, which happened two weeks ago on the psychiatric ward at the sprawling Kings Country Hospital (KCH) in Brooklyn, has now led to hospital officials agreeing in court to implement changes at the facility.
The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), which oversees the hospital, said Tuesday that it had fired six employees, including security personnel and members of the medical staff, as a result of the death of Esmin Green, 49.
"We are all shocked and distressed by this situation," said HHC President Alan Aviles 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."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was outraged by the incident, adding that the behavior of the staff was "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," he added, "and you should pay attention."
The shocking video was released by lawyers suing KCH in federal court on an unrelated matter.
A federal court order was signed Tuesday, directing the hospital to assemble a search team to fill the spots of the fired staff and establishing guidelines to reduce the waiting time at the emergency room.
HHC said Green was brought to the psychiatric emergency room by Emergency Medical Service medics on the morning of June 18, suffering from agitation and psychosis.
Officials said she was left in the emergency room, supposedly under supervision, waiting for a bed in the inpatient unit to become available.
HHC officials said nearly 24 hours later, on the morning on June 19, she was found unresponsive on the floor.
They said Green had fallen from her seat, face down, at 5:32 a.m., and was dead by 6:35 a.m. when a medical staffer summoned help.
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