The grieving family of a Brooklyn woman recently settled a $2 million wrongful death medical malpractice lawsuit against the city in a gruesome case of negligence caught on hospital surveillance tape. Esmin Green, a 49-year-old psychiatric patient was left to die on a hospital waiting room floor by medical staff, who ignored the victim for 24 hours as she struggled to get help that could have spared her life.
The surveillance tape shows medical staff, security guards and other patients walking past Green as she struggled desperately for her life. According to medical examiners, Ms. Green was suffering from blood clots. It was over an hour after Ms. Green had collapsed in her struggle before a nurse came over to check her pulse and announce her death.
The US Department of Justice cites Ms. Green’s death as part of a larger pattern of medical negligence, inadequate care, violence, and sexual abuse perpetrated against patients at Kings County Medical Hospital in New York City. This federal report went public when the president of New York’s Health and Hospital Corporation, Alan Aviles, announced reforms for the hospital including the replacement of two head administrators and the addition of 200 medical professionals to its 600-person staff. An additional six hospital employees were fired after Ms. Green’s death.
Mr. Aviles hopes that the changes made within the hospital will reduce psychiatric patient’s ER waiting room time to 6 hours from a shocking 27 hours. He added that the settlement awarded to Ms. Green’s family through the wrongful death medical malpractice settlement was not meant to put a value on a person’s life and the suffering of their loved ones. He hoped that this tragedy would compel the hospital to create a national model for patient-based health care and mental health services.
Ms. Green’s family is still awaiting a complete investigation of her case, according to their family lawyer.”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,” the personal injury attorney added.
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Ted Oshman has been with The Oshman Firm since 1988 serving clients for over 25 years. Learn more about Ted's background and featured practice areas here.
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