Could health care get any better?
Caught on tape: Hospital patient left to die.

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'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.

Edit: Some psych patients wait days in ERs - A follow-up of sorts.

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	shinga 2008-07-13 01:17 pm UTC (link)
	OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD. And oh goody, they fired people. That's it. They fired them. Fan-fucking-tastic. Considering ALL OF THEM tried to cover up the death with fake reports, obviously they were being instructed to hide it. Just firing the security guards and whoever was on duty will probably not magically fix this. That whole article makes me want to kill something. (Reply to this)(Thread)

inappropriate
2008-07-13 03:14 pm UTC (link)

Just found a sort of "follow-up" article as well.

Six hospital employees were fired in the days after she died, and the city agreed to reduce overcrowding and trim the time patients spend in the unit. Hospital administrators also promised to improve conditions in the unit, which had been deplored in a recent lawsuit.

The suit, which is still pending, claimed the long waits for care at King’s County could be cruel. Patients had limited access to linens, gowns or soap. The showers were filthy and there were few places to sleep.

One patient lucky enough to get a bed complained that someone stole her spot when she got up in the night to use the bathroom. Another patient said he was robbed of his wallet after falling asleep in a busy hallway.

A 54-year-old man only days removed from an open heart surgery said he had to curl up on the floor of a reception area, where he was kept awake by fighting between patients and security guards.

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