This is not an isolated case...a symptom of what is terribly wrong with the health care system of the United States... When doctors start valuing their pocket more than their Oath, when more money is spent on war than on your own health care system...when you would not be treated in a public hospital without insurance even if you are bloody well dying of the Peruvian Tongue Rotting Disease (Nope..no way sir...I gotta need your policy..no policy...no admitting.. =P)..then you know that you stand a better chance of quality medical service in a Indian hospital in Madras, than in the best bleedin hospital in the US...the American people have to decide what to care about: blowing up imaginary terrorists or trying to salvage a national health care system that has utterly failed to care for its people.

PlusVideo Shows Woman Dying on NY Hospital FloorVideo Shows Woman Dying on NY Hospital Floor. At a New York hospital, officials agreed in court Tuesday to implement reforms at a psychiatric ward where surveillance footage captured a woman falling from her chair and dying as workers failed to help. (July 1)(New York)) A sad death in New York City. Surveillance cameras at a city-run psychiatric hospital emergency room in Brooklyn capture a woman falling from a chair, writhing on the floor and dying. Hospital staff and other patients watch and do nothing for more than an hour. One guard doesn't even leave his chair, rolling it around the corner to stare at the body. The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the facility, Kings County Hospital Center, last year over the way it treats psychiatric patients. ((Donna Lieberman, NY Civil Liberties Union)) "A chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger and seeks an end to the culture of abuse and neglect where patients are regularly ignored and those that dare advocate for themselves are punished with forcible injections of psychotropic drugs."The city's medical examiner has yet to determine why the woman, 49-year old Esmin green, died on June 20th. She had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours. ((Rob Cohen, Lawyer Suing Hospital)) "There is a culture of indifference to patients that permeates every aspect of KCHC's psychiatric care." The city-run agency that runs the hospital released a statement, saying: "We are shocked and distressed by the situation. It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care. (The hospital has) directed the suspension and termination of those involved." ---- Alan Aviles, Kings County Hospital Center The surveillance video eventually shows a member of the medical staff attending to Green. But it's too late, she had already died.Esmin Green, a 49-year old native of Jamaica, died in the waiting room of hospital's G Building, a psychiatric ward. Videotape shows several guards and even a doctor walking through the camera view without doing anything to help the woman, who was prone on the floor. In addition, records were falsified, stating her status at times which the time-stamped video prove false, even going so far as to giving reports about her status after she was apparently dead. Several people were fired in the immediate aftermath, and investigations and lawsuits are pending. This incident came in the midst of a federal lawsuit charging neglect by the hospital[6][7].

Some background on the hospital: Kings County Hospital Center is a hospital located at 451 Clarkson Avenue in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City. It is under the umbrella of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), the municipal agency which runs New York City's public hospitals.

According to the HHC, "Kings County was named the first Level 1 Trauma Center in the U.S." [1]. Because of this trauma center, police officers have been quoted as saying, "If I get shot... bring me to Kings County." [2]

In 1997 KCHC began a modernization program[3]. Phase 1 a 250,000 sq ft Bed Tower was completed in 2001,Phase 2 a 260,000 treatment and diagnostic center was completed in 2005 and Phase 3 an ambulatory center in 2006.

This work was managed by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, with the TDX Construction Company as the project manager.[citation needed] A 300,000 sq foot Behavorial Center is under construction and will be complete in 2008.[citation needed]

Kings County hospital has paid out more than 1/3 of all malpractice claims against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (over $60 million). Since there are 11 city hospitals, this indicates that Kings County hospital has a very high amount of malpractice claims compared to other city hospitals. Kings County hospitals has been the most sued hospital of the city's health care system[4].

In 2003, the United States Army established a training program at the hospital called the Academy of Advanced Combat Medicine to train reservists in an emergency room that has received 600 cases per year of gunshot and stabbing victims.[5]

In May 2007, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Mental Hygiene Legal Service sued Kings County in federal court, alleging that conditions at the facility are filthy. Patients are often forced to sleep in plastic chairs or on floors covered in urine, feces and blood while waiting for beds, the groups allege, and often go without basic hygiene such as showers, clean linens and clean clothes.

The lawsuit claims that patients who complain face physical abuse and are injected with drugs to keep them docile.

The hospital, the suit alleges, lacks "the minimal requirements of basic cleanliness, space, privacy, and personal hygiene that are constitutionally guaranteed even to convicted felons."




On a lighter note: What would an ambulance in France sound like? Here's Bill Bailey: