[NYAPRS Enews] AP: NYC To Pay $2m in Esmin Green Tragedy Suit

Thu May 28 07:22:33 EDT 2009

$2m For Kin Of Woman Who Died On NY Hospital Floor

By Karen Matthews Associated Press May 28th 2009 

The family of a woman who died on a hospital floor, struggling to get up
while staffers ignored her, has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against
the city for $2 million.

But the family of Esmin Green, whose death was recorded on a hospital
security video, still is awaiting a full investigation into what
happened at the Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn, family lawyer
Sanford Rubenstein said Wednesday.

"What remains most important to this family is the criminal culpability
for those responsible for what happened and those who attempted to cover
it up," Rubenstein said.

Green, a 49-year-old psychiatric patient, had been in a waiting room at
the city-owned hospital for nearly 24 hours when she collapsed on June
19, 2008. Neither fellow patients nor the hospital's staff moved to help
her, even as she thrashed her legs on the floor and tried to get up. Two
security guards and a member of the hospital's medical staff can be seen
on the video stopping to look at her briefly before walking away.

Green stopped moving after about 30 minutes. She was on the floor for an
hour before a nurse checked her pulse. The medical examiner said she
suffered from blood clots.

Six hospital employees lost their jobs over the incident, and the video
prompted national outrage when it became public soon after.

The U.S. Department of Justice cited Green's death among other abuses in
a February report that documented a pattern of what investigators said
was "inadequate care," violence among patients and sexual abuse at Kings
County.

That report became public when Alan Aviles, president of the city's
Health and Hospitals Corp., announced reforms at the hospital including
the replacement of its top two administrators and the addition of 200
medical personnel to its 600-member staff.

Aviles said the improvements would shorten the average time patients
wait in the psychiatric emergency room to eight hours, down from 27
hours.

Aviles said the settlement with the Green family was "not meant to put a
value on a life and the loss of a loved one."

"The indelible memory of this tragedy will spur us to fulfill our
promise to create a national model of patient-centered mental health
services at Kings County Hospital," he said in a statement.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iN2nQkt-hqAkWgQavGRPLG
tJCWLQD98ETGM80

City to Pay $2 Million Over Woman's Death in Psychiatric Ward

By Sewell Chan <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/sewell-chan/>
New York Times May 27, 2009

New York City has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of a woman who
died on the floor
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/nyregion/02hosp.html>  of the
psychiatric ward at Kings County Hospital Center
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/kin
gs_county_hospital/index.html>  in June 2008 after waiting more than 24
hours to be treated. A videotape showed the woman lying on the floor for
more than an hour while workers at the city-run hospital did nothing to
help her. It prompted widespread criticism, as well as pledges of
reform. 

The city's Health and Hospitals Corporation
<http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/home/home.shtml>  accepted full
responsibility for the death of the woman, Esmin Elizabeth Green, 49,
and said it had taken steps to relieve crowding and increase the size of
the staff to provide mental health services at the hospital. 

The death came amid mounting concern
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/nyregion/12about.html>  over
conditions in the psychiatric service at the hospital, the only mental
health provider for many poor people in Brooklyn. 

In May 2007, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit alleging
abuse and neglect of psychiatric patients at the hospital, and that
December, the United States Department of Justice began an
investigation. In February 2009, the authorities issued a scathing
58-page report <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/nyregion/06kings.html>
that found, among other problems, that patients were not treated for
suicidal behavior, were routinely subdued with physical restraints and
drugs instead of receiving individualized psychiatric treatment, and
were frequently abused by other patients. 

The report
<http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/2009/2009130KCHC.pdf
>  found that conditions at the psychiatric unit were "highly dangerous
and require immediate attention." It also concluded that in at least
three cases, including Ms. Green's, employees falsified records to hide
their neglect.

Ms. Green <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/nyregion/07funeral.html>
had immigrated from Jamaica in the late 1990s to earn money for her six
children back home. A devout churchgoer, she had worked caring for the
elderly and helping at a day care center for children, before she lost
her job. She suffered from depression. 

On Wednesday, Sanford Rubenstein, a lawyer for Ms. Green's family,
called the settlement of the wrongful-death lawsuit, filed in State
Supreme Court in Brooklyn, "fair and reasonable," but he said the family
would continue to press for accountability. 

"What remains most important to this family is the criminal culpability
for those responsible for what happened and those who attempted to cover
it up, which continues, after all this time, to remain under
investigation by the New York City Department of Investigation
<http://www.nyc.gov/html/doi/home.html> ," Mr. Rubenstein said in a
statement. "In no way does this settlement affect that investigation,
and the family remains adamant in its demands that anyone who committed
a criminal act with regard to the death of Esmin Green or the attempt to
cover it up be prosecuted criminally to the full extent of the law."

Alan D. Aviles
<http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/about/alan-aviles-biography.shtml> ,
president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, said the settlement
"is not meant to put a value on a life and the loss of a loved one."

"That," he said, "remains priceless." 

The hospital system said it had undertaken numerous reforms, including
construction of a new Behavioral Health Center Pavilion; the addition of
more than 200 doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers and other
staff members; a reduction in crowding in the psychiatric emergency
room; and reduced reliance on hospital police to manage patients in
crisis.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/city-to-pay-2-million-over-
womans-death-in-psychiatric-ward/?pagemode=print

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