Jun 20, 2009 7:39 am US/Eastern
Possible Criminal Charges In Death At NYC Hospital
Report: Staffers Falsified Records, Lied To Authorities In Neglect Of Esmin Green, Who Died On Waiting Room Floor
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
-
-
Surveillance video footage from Kings County Hospital shows Esmin Green dying on the floor of a psychiatric emergency room while security guards and staffers do nothing about it.
CBS
-
-
Surveillance video footage from Kings County Hospital shows a woman dying on the floor of a psychiatric emergency room while security guards and staffers do nothing about it.
CBS
She was left to die in a hospital emergency waiting room, one year ago Friday.
Shocking surveillance video showed the woman ignored for hours before she collapsed, and now CBS 2 HD has learned several hospital employees could face charges in a cover-up.
Friday night's vigil came on the one-year anniversary of Esmin Green's death-by-neglect at the old psychiatric emergency room at Kings County Hospital.
It also came on the very day New York City's Department of Investigation issued it's report clearing the way for criminal charges in the case.
The city's own investigators said there was a cover-up to obscure the horrendous facts surrounding the 49-year-old woman's death -- a chilling sequence caught by the ER's security camera.
The patient was left alone for 24 hours and finally on the floor already dead or dying as various hospital workers went about their business -- as if their business wasn't health care.
Mental health advocates regard Green's death as symbolic of a larger problem.
"It is not unusual at all. It's something that could've happened to any of us," psychiatric survivor Sarah Berman said.
The DOI found Green never received a physical examination, that her neglect was not result of overcrowding or overwork and that important records were falsified.
The city has already paid $2 million to Green's family, but their attorney said criminal charges are now in order.
"The report indicated clearly that the problem at this hospital was systemic, which means it affected more than just Esmin Green. It affected all the patients and it is, I believe that is, systemic throughout this country and has to be addressed," Sanford Rubenstein said.
It's a matter, many say, of basic human respect.
"If a person has a psychiatric label they don't have credibility and they complain, well they're just mentally ill," mental health advocate Sheila Hill said.
The Brooklyn district attorney has the report and the names of a nursing supervisor, nurses aide and four doctors implicated in the alleged cover-up.
The victim's daughter, reached in Jamaica Friday, said she hopes criminal charges will be filed soon.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
World's Most Useless Facts
Click to enlarge
Looming Storm Likely To Bury NYC, Suburbs 16 mins ago 
NYS Senate To Vote On 2 Resolutions On Monserrate 39 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Comments