Tuesday July 1, 2008, 1:44 pm
Surveillance video shows woman fall from chair, thrash on floor, then lie still. People around ignore her for almost an hour, the video shows. Several staffers fired at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, over the incident. Lawyers are suing hospital, alleging neglect and abuse of patients.

I'm sorry, but we have so many issues with our health care system in OUR OWN COUNTRY, this continues to be the #1 issue that both candidates running for PRESIDENT need to have on their already-full plates. How can we hold our heads up high, and hope to regain the respect of the world when we continue to mistreat, disrespect, ignore, and KICK our own people when they need us most?

Tuesday July 1, 2008, 1:59 pm
I just saw this on the television, I just can't understand ANYONE just ignoring this woman or anyone in trouble. What has this world come to? TY Kactus

Tuesday July 1, 2008, 2:44 pm
This just blew me away! Can't believe NO ONE tried to help this woman! Hope that action is taken at this hospital for the gross negligency!

Tuesday July 1, 2008, 8:16 pm
Here in Africa I could understand there in the US? Gates and others need to spend some of that fortune helping out there. There is more than enough for whats needed effectively and under current conditions here in Africa. This is a very sad article and story.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 2:38 am
A theory: In overcrowded population centers, people develop a shell to preserve their safety, identity, etc. Also, people who routinely work in distressing places - mental institutions, prisons, etc. - often become inured to the real situation around them in order to function. And, very often, the preciousness of life is forgotten when surrounded by misery. NO - not excusing the behavior, just trying to find a reason. I too am appalled.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 2:47 am
Well, that is the unclear part of this article....whether or not it's a truly "mental" facility or not. But, does that excuse it? I think not. I think this can happen anywhere...in any hospital or health care facility in our own USA. I was recently in an emergency room when a young boy ran in and said his friend had "OD'd" and was out in the entrance "dying"....do you know what the nurse attending ME at the time said? "Sign in, and take a seat...he'll have to wait for his turn." My jaw dropped open! I guess they thought the other boy was a drug addict, but he was just a kid...who had tried to commit suicide. *sigh* I truly would have gladly bled to death to give him my turn first!!

I'm so much more than appalleed, I'm disgusted!

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 2:58 am
This is disgusting, but unfortunately I have experienced some situations of uncaring doctors and/or nurses in my life. Not all of them are like that, but none of them should be like that.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 3:18 am
Just incredible, and Kings County Hospital is ironically next to the morgue! Iti is not enough just to dismiss the negligent from their jobs, but to sue them as individuals both oncivil and criminal charges as an example to others.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 4:54 am
Noted. Thanks Kathy, this is part of helping people, your story. Just to let them know. Tomorrow try to help just one person. Just a kind word can do it. Don't be scared, it will spred.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 5:08 am
I also saw this horrible display of inhumanity against another human being on TV and was appalled, horrified, disgusted & angry at the system!

God forbid if I or anyone of us, was to go into any hospital emergency Room! What kind of people are working there? Obviously ones that really do not care about the people that are in deep need of help.

If these people that work in the emergency, get it "EMERGENCY" room do not like their jobs, where they are supposed to be saving lives, {I don't care how overpopulated it is} then they should not be there working. Or put more staff on that care!
They are there to help, no matter what, preferable the people that really are in need of it. They need to pay more attention to the people that come in, help those that are in dire need 1st & fast, and try to get to every one ASAP, all are in need, but more so than others...


I would so sue the pants off this hospital for neglect and murder of a patient in dire need of help, then walking around her for almost an hour, how disgraceful is that? I bless that woman's soul for waiting so long, just to die in a place that sould of helped her. I bless her family also, how truly sad this story was to note.
TY Kactus, my friend.
Peace,
FreeSpiritRunning

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 6:30 am
This is just horrible and so very sad...I saw this on Nancy Grace CNN last night before I went to work. We were all talking about it during break. It sickens me...how could anyone not try to help this poor woman. I have first aid training and I would never ignore her or anyone else. Even if you don't have any training...for God's sake you're in a hospital, flag down a doctor or a nurse!!! What is wrong with people today? This wouldn't happen where I live...there was just an article in the local paper last week about how many people in our city (Windsor, Ontario, Canada-- we're right across the river from Detroit Michigan) step in and help each other during robberies, chasing down drunk drivers, and helping people who've been in accidents, etc. God help those who stood by and did nothing...staff and patients alike. All I can say is KARMA...your turn may be next!!!!!

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 6:36 am
Well they are assholes for letting this happen, they all saw her lying there and never once checked on her....Yes Ramona Karma...

Big goirlly HUgs

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 6:47 am
I have a friend who knows a bit about this, as she has a seizure disorder and has had it for nearly 9 years and has seen 3 different neurologists. She had to see the third one before getting proper treatment and was allowed to suffer for 14 months without proper treatment after the onset of the seizures because she couldn't make her doctor believe she was having seizures. She was told they didn't think she was actually having seizures because people that have seizures usually are not aware of it. Does that make sense? She was a 48 year old woman who suddenly began wetting the bed and would suddenly fall down and wet her pants and they questioned whether or not she was having seizures. Not to mention the fact that her family and friends witnessed the seizures. What is becoming of this country and it's medical care personnel?

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 7:09 am
This from one of my groups. http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/795215

Last month in Oregon, Barbara Wagner found out that her lung cancer had come back. The Oregon Health Plan refused to cover the cancer drug her oncologist prescribed, but would cover palliative, or comfort care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 7:38 am
ohh is this really happening in this country? so sad...

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 8:53 am
Gosh, we are talking about treating animals more humanly and here, right here, in this country, staff kickes a sick woman to arose her!!! I cannot believe my eyes. I cannot believe it's possible.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 9:05 am
Unbelievable that noone help. Disgusted and saddened. I hope that this women's family gets some kind of justice.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 9:36 am
This psychiatric center is run by a group of mentally ill staff. It should be shut down by the State.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 10:11 am
Thats crazy, I dreamt this before it happened...I had no idea it was real!

Damn...that's sad.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 10:58 am
Noted. Thanks Kathy. I would like to think that most humans would pay
more attention to their surroundings and get help for someone long
before this kind of tragedy could happen. We should all care for each other. This should be a wake up call for all of us to pay more attention
to what is happening right in front of our noses. Prayers for her family
as they go through this tragic loss.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 12:37 pm
Thanks for the story, Kathy. I saw this on television. I couldn't believe my eyes. Had I been sitting there, I would have gone over to see if I could help the woman but that is just how I am. Then I would have probably raised a lot of hell. Most of you that know me well will have no trouble believing that statement. This situation is disgraceful. They should shut the place down immediately. You have to wonder how many people have died because of sheer neglect. It is outrageous and sickening!

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 12:48 pm
I saw the video. I can't believe that even the security guards did not help and it didn't even alarm them. My 8 yr old was in shock and even said to me, "Why is no one helping her? That is terrible." I can't even think of seeing a person fall and not helping them.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 1:56 pm
This is why I do not practice Western Medicine. Over the years I have noticed and seen more and more neglect. Poorly trained staff, lack of staff and this country just needs to take a stand and stop making excuses for the medical field.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 1:58 pm
Also, mintories and ethnic groups particarly get hit hard by this abuse.. that is a huge problem as well. Humans are humans no matter what.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 2:18 pm
Just a quick comment for everyone here to truly look over the article Carol is sharing with us. http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/795215

Coming from many years living in a state (Michigan) where they put Jack Kavorkian in jail, I often wonder about the fate of people who truly want to die and have made that extremely drastic decision, but in this lady's case, she wanted to LIVE - and the option Oregon gave her was "assisted suicide"???? How ghastly!! Thank goodness a pharmacy was able to assist in a more positive way.

I usually watch NANCY GRACE, but didn't catch her last night. I'm so glad she decided to cover this article. It should be exposed to the entire country, because....truthfully, it could be any one of us who might need emergency care ...in ANY facility out there! Thanks for mentioning Nancy's show, Ramona!

Raven, my only comment to you is that this could happen with ANY practice of medicine. I'm sure that staff was undertrained and over-worked...BUT that's no excuse for letting someone die in an emergency room probably full of HUMAN BEINGS! It's about standing up and taking charge. Speaking up for each other....caring about each other, and making sure someone in authority hears about this happening BEFORE there's a death, or worse yet....another death.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 3:01 pm
No one should be treated this way. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. How horrible this story is! I wonder why the advocates didn't have any luck with creating changes at this hospital?

********* quote from article:

The psychiatric unit at Kings County Hospital had been a subject of complaints by advocates for the mentally ill.

A state agency, the New York State Mental Hygiene Legal Service, filed a lawsuit a year ago, calling the psychiatric center "a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger."

Patients, the suit said, "are subjected to overcrowded and squalid conditions often accompanied by physical abuse and unnecessary and punitive injections of mind-altering drugs."

"From the moment a person steps through the doors," it added, "she is stripped of her freedom and dignity and literally forced to fight for the essentials of life."

The suit was especially critical of the hospital's emergency ward, saying it is so poorly staffed that patients are often marooned there for days while they wait to be evaluated.


Sometimes, the unit runs out of chairs, according to the lawsuit, forcing people to wait on foam mats or on the waiting room floor. The suit also claims that bathrooms are filthy and filled with flies, and that patients who complain too loudly are sometimes handcuffed, beaten or injected with psychotropic drugs.

The office of the city's medical examiner said it was still trying to determine why Green died. She had been brought to the hospital suffering from agitation and psychosis, city officials said.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 3:33 pm
This is about the poor and with this economy it is going to just get worse. But like another blogger said on another site about the latest flip flop by Barack Obama, maybe it has to get really a lot worse for every American before changes come about. We need a real candidate of change not a mirage like obama. What is the old saying, I cant remember it all but it goes something like first they came for so and so and then eventually there is only one person left and that is you. Unfortunately, people dont learn easily, selfishness is the problem of our age, that and materialism and greed--maybe there is a lesson in what is now happening in the world around us.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 4:05 pm
I just watched the FULL video in horror in the local restaurant where I was eating lunch in Portugal. It would appear that our news is possibly less censored than yours as they showed the WHOLE VIDEO TRUTH!!! This lady did not just keel over and die, she toppled from the seat and lay writhing on the floor obviously in great distress for some time before dying....in front of other people in the room! I can only assume the clip shown on CNN News was edited. Then at least TWO (may have been 3, I was a bit shocked!!) people, including a security guard, walked up to the doorway, looked at her (presumably now dead) body on the floor and simply walked away!!! This is INCREDIBLE! I am outraged.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 4:10 pm
We need to go through the state system and get a update with the people who go in and check on hospitals. I am a nurse, this kind of thing happens every where. Drug mistakes in every hospital. It is at long time past that they would step up and change and get this stopped. Nurses on drugs and doctors. The stress level is awefull, which creates more problems and more mistakes...! Why are we letting this go on...! We need to wake up america and get healthy use products that are no chemicals or drugs. We are letting down the US by not speaking out. Healthy people create a healthy way of life...it might be our family next who a doctor hurts...or a nurse turns the other way...Gather together ...creating holistic care is the way...learning new ways of treatments....God Bless us...is all I can say.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 4:57 pm
I am not surprised at all. Disgusting behavior.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 5:15 pm
Noted with grief, tnx for posting Kaktus.
This really is a very sad situation.
In my feeling, people don't seem to feel the need to be there for other people anymore.
Like put elderly in a home, put addicts in confinement, etc.
Caring seems to get further away every day.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 5:36 pm
This is another sad example of how badly we treat mentally ill patients in this country. They are picked up, "examined", let go, and then proceed to commit suicide by cop! Can't we vote for OUR tax money to be rerouted from overseas to our own ailing country? There is an old saying "Physician heal thyself", and we can change it to "USA heal thyself". Good job, Kactus.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 7:32 pm
I'm not suprised. It has been like this in the New Orleans area since Katrina. It is better in a couple of hospitals. But no nurses, no beds; no beds, backup in the er---it is because we let so many hospitals go "for profit" and obviously many people fall through the cracks. People take the profit out of medicine and no one wants to pay taxes. This system has fallem apart. Our so-called leaders have given their pals windfall profits and left the rest of us to third rate medical care. The for profits over work staff, so there aren't enough professionals. Hospitals must been not for profit. Professionals must be paid and treated well. And everyone must be entitled to some level of care. It worked for years. Our country's was the best. Then, we went all Republican. We don't need socialized medicine, but we need to expand coverage and stop all for profits, except for private hospitals, not allowed to pay professionals more, but allowed to give luxury, for the very wealthy.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 8:23 pm
'm in Canada, it happens it variations of it have happened to me, my positive seizure test disappeared to cover for the drugs they had me on and put as psychiatric with a load of other (*&*** for their so called integrity, my repeated brain body damage isn't on my med files and I am still at it. and they can get me for libel if i speak the truth i have found out with our tax payers money. I regret to say I am not surprised at all. Once psychiatric was put on my files after the first brain damage, I was abused, harassed and/or tortured in every hospital and my mother assaulted as well as harassed and as soon as anyone left the severe abuse would start, mostly from neurologists, nurses, although one shrink was involved as well and she was vicious. It for the most part was deliberate to keep me isolated and the damage off my records while they colluded together. A worker told me once you are branded psychiatric, you have 1% change of getting proper or any meaningful care and not kicked out, ignored or abused. I don't think people are immune to any of it, it is clear intent to even ignore someone. And regarding the seizure comment above, I don't have epilepsy, there are about 40 different kinds of seizures and i still have them with a host of other damage and problems from psychiatric meds for a neurological illnesses. This soul is in a better place than we now. Blessings and love to her. We have a very long way to go the human race.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 8:38 pm
I just had 2 people in my life DIE because Dr's didnt think it was THAT bad. The entire health care system is lacking and its scary, you could be dead before they realize anything is wrong. Now my loved ones are gone too because of this ignorance.

Wednesday July 2, 2008, 10:22 pm
Saw this on the 5 P.M. news on July 1st. How they managed to keep it quiet
this long is beyond me. The whole situation is deplorable.To see a nurse go over and kick a potential deceased patient is totally unacceptab;
le. Yes, they fired the dr on call but instead of putting the guards and nurses that were involved in this on suspension, they too should be fired and a thorough investigation launched and charges brought against those involved. It's not acceptable and while this hasn't happened as blatenly in
Canada, as far as I know, we have numerous deaths in our emergency rooms due to lack of immediate attention. The whole medical system in North America needs to be overhauled!

Thursday July 3, 2008, 12:34 am
Sadly this just highlights the attitude of people in general....@ this moment in time!
Eager to dispense violence as a cure all.....but a total lack of compassion under any circumstances!

Thursday July 3, 2008, 12:45 am
As you say cal...ironic that it should be next to the morgue......ie with an attitude of....."if we let them wait we may not have to attend to them..they may well be next doors clients!

Thursday July 3, 2008, 5:19 am
Same thing is happening in our veteran's hospitals:(

Thursday July 3, 2008, 6:15 am
I can't tell if this is about finances or that old, old stigma of the "unter mention " Remember Germany under Hitler? Here in India the mentally ill are lodged in the regulat jails with criminals for companions. Can anyone imagine the plight of these unfortunates? It seems that anything bizarre that you do, we do better here!!!!

Thursday July 3, 2008, 6:33 am
I have no mere words to express my sadness and sorrow for this poor woman. Nothing surprises me anymore - the abuse of people, animals, children - I only can Hope that if enough people stand up for the abused - someday this horrible treatment of God's precious children will end.
Shirley H.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 9:21 am
This is horrific. We have been numbed to death. Noted sadly, thank you Kactus Kat.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 10:21 am
I'm sad that this happened, but I'm not surprised. I think our healthcare system is getting worse and worse. Years ago, a woman my mom worked with was having back pain and went to see her doctor about it. He listened to her for awhile and then told her that if she exercised more, her back pain would go away. She got a second opinion (I don't know how long after, I think she waited awhile) and found out it was a tumor. It was too late to do anything and she died later on. My mom hates that doctor, she wouldn't even have him do my physicals (he was the doctor for my school).

Thursday July 3, 2008, 11:53 am
2008!!!This is a sad example of today's cold and selfish world.
Even in hospitals there is no compassion.
Thank you Cactus for sharing the ugly truth.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 3:11 pm
Michael Moore's "Sicko" is off the front page, and off the plates of the media, so there must be some other way to get this back up front and worked on. Any suggestions??

Thursday July 3, 2008, 4:00 pm
I have a mental illness. there is still a bad stigma attached to us. Most of it sear iggorance. I was force to retire from job. the Air Force and can get job. I have seen this tragic thing happen in VA hospitals and others.

Thursday July 3, 2008, 11:27 pm
I'm very suprise to see this kind of thing can still happen in this world. We know that in the hospital we will be taking care off but when you see the video, this thing might be heppen to your love one..So we should stop this people from doing it again..I'am very sad to see it..God bless us.

Friday July 4, 2008, 7:27 am
When you will you learn that no matter who have in there as president,look what happen under President Bush at the Walter Reed Hospital Hospital. Look at he economy,at the lost of jobs,at the cost of the war we are supporting, at the cost of our health. And all the corrution that is in our capital in Washingtion D.C.

Friday July 4, 2008, 3:30 pm
I have commented before, but I agree with Black Tiger...isn't there some way to get our society's treatment of mental illness back on the minds of the public?? I will be hoping to see if we can come up with something!

Monday July 7, 2008, 5:47 pm
I have already posted my thoughts. However, I would like to add one thing. This woman was in the Emergency room for almost 24 hours, just sitting there. Who wouldn't have at least tried to engage her in conversation? At least she wouldn't have died alone. I guess I am a troublemaker and I am sure that some would agree with me but I will be at least trying to get someone to see this woman. Sheeesh, 24 hours waiting in ER is disgraceful and where on earth were the other people in the waiting room? Guess I am a bit too nosey for my own good. This situation really bothered me.

Tuesday July 8, 2008, 6:47 am
I was treated in a similar way, at Stafford General Infirmary, UK. I had a panic attack following a sexual abuse councelling session and was taken to hospital. The attack had left me without speech and unable to move.

I was shouted at, thrown off the trolly and left on the floor of a busy A and E waiting area for nearly half an hour. It was so humiliating. An old lady helped me and some very kind people took me to the police station where my boyfriend picked me up. I complained, but nothing was done. Mental health patients are seen as scum of the earth. That's just the way it goes. I won't go for councelling ever again though, it's too dangerous.