The Woman Who Died in the Waiting Room

[Judi Lynn]

The Woman Who Died in the Waiting Room
By Jeneen Interlandi | NEWSWEEK
Jul 21, 2008 Issue

Esmin Elizabeth green fell out of her chair in the waiting room of Brooklyn's largest psychiatric hospital nearly an hour before anyone realized she was in trouble. For 20 minutes, she writhed and twisted between two chairs under the watchful eye of a security camera whose footage would later be broadcast across the country, spurring a public outcry. Two security guards and two other staff members passed through the room and glanced at the 49-year-old woman, without bothering to check her vital signs or help her up. The sight of patients like Green, wearing a urine-stained hospital gown and lying face down on the floor, was hardly uncommon in the psychiatric emergency room of Kings County Hospital Center. Neither was the fact that by the time she collapsed, she had been waiting almost 24 hours for a bed. At that moment Green was in line with 32 other patients, some of whom had been waiting just as long, if not longer.

~snip~
Green came from a rural village near St. Catherine, Jamaica, in 2000, and made her home among Brooklyn's Caribbean diaspora and the Jesus Is Lord Sabbath Day Adventist Church, where she sang, prayed and sometimes lived. The eldest of 12 children and a mother of six, Green assumed the role of matriarch when she was just 20, after her own mother died. In Jamaica, she had been a shrewd businesswoman, establishing a successful dress shop, a wholesale fishing business and a small import company over the course of a decade. Family and friends remember her as outspoken, vivacious and generous to a fault, with a voice that could wake the dead and a love for church and children that surpassed all else. "She was the light to us," says her eldest daughter, Trecia, who is suing the hospital and the city for $25 million. "She had a strength that drew everyone to her."

In Brooklyn, Green struggled with poverty and bouts of depression that friends say were triggered by a profound home-sickness.Having left her own children, including a 6-year-old son, in Jamaica, she immersed herself in the church's youth programs, where she ran activities and led prayer sessions, and area day-care centers, where she worked on and off over the years. Without a green card, a permanent job or any health insurance, Green relied on her pastor, Marilyn Johnson, and a patchwork of friends to see her through dark times. But a fierce pride compelled her to hide her illness from most of, them, so that even after she died, only a handful knew the full extent of her suffering.

More:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/145870?from=rss

[ck4829]

1. "Greatest healthcare system in the world" strikes again!

There was no reason for her to die.

[Cleita]

2. This woman's story fills me with sadness.

All of this is so preventable, yet those who can instigate change, won't.

[applegrove]

3. I'm glad she has a name and her story is out there. Will not bring her back

but at least it will make people think.

[Blue_Tires]

4. no words....

[smkyle1]

5. Esmin Elizabeth Green

I appreciate that Newsweek added more to the story that was so widely circulated on cable news and other news outlets. Her name was Esmin Elizabeth Green. She was someone's mother, daughter, friend. I intend to pass this story on to all of my contacts. Yes, this is a tragic story. My heart goes out to Esmin Elizabeth Green's family. But I hope there will be many who have heard enough - who will say "this is the last straw" - and demand that this country implement a single-payer health care policy. Too many of us sit back, do nothing, and wait for the politicians to do everything. Heck, most Americans aren't even aware of what the politicians are doing.

It is not likely the callousness and sheer inhumane neglectfulness of the hospital employees developed overnight. It's more likely this is an ongoing problem. What a sad state our healthcare is in. How shameful.

[salguine]

6. People need to go to fucking prison over this.