NEW YORK—A video was released today of a woman in need of medical attention who died in a hospital waiting room after collapsing on the floor. The woman was ignored by medical and security staff and died before they tended to her.
The patient was identified as 49-year old Esmin Green from Jamaica, who had arrived at Kings County Hospital Center’s psychiatric emergency room on 19 June this year. After collapsing on the floor, Ms. Green is seen in the video to have been ignored by a security guard and medical staff, who took almost an hour to realise she needed urgent attention. By the time someone came to her aid, she had already died. Reports indicate Ms. Green had waited almost 24 hours after being involuntarily committed to the psychiatric centre the previous morning.
The incident comes as a blow to the state facility in Brooklyn, New York, after its psychiatric centre was criticised last year by the New York State Mental Hygiene Legal Service and the New York Civil Liberties Union, who filed a suit against the hospital calling the psychiatric centre “a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger.”
Deaths in psychiatric care or under treatment with psychotropic drugs is at an all time high, with correctly administered medications in the top five causes of death in many countries, including the United States. In the case of Ms. Green however, the problem arose after she was not treated for the physical condition that led to her collapse. Involuntary commitment to the psychiatric centre for what was described as ‘agitation’ would eventually lead to her death.
The practice of involuntary commitment is described as “using legal means or forms as part of a mental health law to commit a person to a mental hospital, insane asylum or psychiatric ward against their will.” The controversial practice is permitted by law in many countries, and has met criticism from human rights groups, physicians and former psychiatrists.
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry Thomas Szasz wrote that “all history teaches us to beware of benefactors who deprive their beneficiaries of liberty…. There is neither justification nor need for involuntary psychiatric interventions.”
In a paper on involuntary commitment procedures, Dr. Lawrence Stevens, J.D. writes “Of course, mental “hospitals” are jails for all persons detained there against their will. Furthermore, they are places where people may be incarcerated with no showing of prior illegal (or otherwise harmful) conduct – only “mental illness”…”
Psychologist and professor Dr. Jeffrey Schaler is another respected professional to have spoken out against the psychiatric industry. “The controversy regarding the myth of mental illness and psychiatry is not about science or medicine; it’s about power,” he said.
One thing however is free from doubt on all sides—the death of Ms. Green arose out of negligence and ignorance, and could well have been prevented were she given the appropriate care. Six people lost their jobs at Kings County over the incident, and the video has been passed on to prosecutors in the case against the hospital. Arrangements are being made for her body to be flown to Jamaica, where a funeral service will be held.
For more information regarding psychiatric abuse, visit the Citizens Commission on Human Rights