The below hospital surveillance video shows a dying woman while people around her, including a hospital security guard, did nothing to help. Apparently hospitals aren’t good places for people with mental illness to be (click here to read the full entry and view the video):

After a full hour, another patient alerted hospital staff of the woman dead on the floor. But it gets better:

Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.

And while I’d like to say this is a rare, unfortunate accident, indifference among staffers at hospitals toward people with mental illness is actually fairly common.

This is not the first time this hospital has had troubles, either:

A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s civil rights unit before the June 19 death.

Why their psych ward is even allowed to remain open is beyond me. And while 6 staffers have been fired, including 2 security guards who saw the woman and did nothing, it still leaves a bitter taste in anyone’s mouth who watches this tape. The loss of a job just doesn’t seem sufficient punishment for the death of a person with mental illness — in a hospital.

Read the full story: Hospital video shows no one helped dying woman

Dr. John Grohol is the founder & CEO of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has 16 comments.
You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts.

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 1 Jul 2008
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.