July 7, 2008
Mourning, Questions at Neglected Patient's Funeral
Yesterday, friends, family, and others gathered for the funeral of 49-year-old Esmin Green, whose death in a Kings County Hospital emergency room was captured on surveillance video. Green, who had been waiting for almost 24 hours for medical attention, had collapsed onto the floor; though many staffers saw her on the floor, nothing was done until a nurse (who kicked her gently) realized she was unconscious an hour later.
Green was described as a loving, devout woman who worked as a caregiver to the elderly, a day care worker, and Sunday school teacher. She also suffered from depression, which is why she had gone to Kings County. NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said at the funeral, “She went to the hospital for care and met a system pervaded by indifference, disdain and abuse." The NYCLU is suing Kings County for a history of abusive conditions (after the the footage of Green's death surfaced, the hospital promised reforms to better care for mentally ill patients).
A friend told NYC that the hospital staffers who ignored Green should "to go to jail. I said it before and I'll say it again: they're supposed to go to jail." And Green's distraught daughter Trecia Harrison said, "I can't even describe what we're going through. My heart is broken because I knew that eventually I would lose her, but not in the way she went." Harrison had flown in from Jamaica--the city paid for Green's funeral expenses and Forest City Ratner footed the tab for her relatives to fly from Jamaica to NYC).
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Anybody know what the Ratner connnection to the hospital? It is opened by HHC or by Ratner?
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I imagine Ratner offered to fly the family in (plus the body back to Jamaica) as a prominent, concerned business in Brooklyn. I'll contact FCR and ask.
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What about the negleced art of checking your spelling?
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>>>A friend told NY1 believed the hospital staffers who ignored Green should "to go to jail.
What does this mean?
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It appears that Forest City Ratner is paying for the travel expenses as an expression of good will, though the blog entry below implies that something more sinister may be at hand:
http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2008/07/05/forest-city-ratner-covers-relatives-travel-costs-for-funeral-of-esmin-green-patient-who-died-in-ny-hospital/
(Note: this is not my blog)
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All the attention on the model because she was pretty and young and almost nothing for this poor woman. Guess she wasn't glamorous enough for people to care.
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Hi! I'm the Writes Like She Talks blogger and I promise, totally not a sinister suspicion re: Forest City link. In fact, one of my city's council people is the dir of community outreach for the Forest City Enterprises here.
Rather, I really wanted to know how Mayor Bloomberg and the Ratners made contact on this, if they did. The Ratners are an enormous and influential (and at times extremely generous) family here in Cleveland (though they are often skewered for getting deals that some would consider too good for them and not good enough for anyone else).
So when I saw that, the flag went up -not so much a red or sinister one, as much as one that made me want to know, "What's the connection there!?"
That was all. As I wrote, I think (I can't remember!), they aren't on the board of the NYHHC or anything, so it wasn't anything untoward in that sense. In the absence of any other info, I would guess that it is in fact just a gesture of a mitzvah for them.
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Update--I called Forest City Ratner, which then had their communications (Dan Klores Comm.) firm call me back. The media relations person told me FCR did not want to release a statement about their decision to pay for expenses.
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Hi Jen - hmm. Well, okay. I really have no inside track, but I did almost email the councilman, just to see - since he is the community outreach guy. He's also the person behind getting a Dem. club going in my very small and pretty conservative town - I am gentle when approaching him because he has been around a long time and knows a lot of folks etc. I don't want to harass.
The only other thing I can think of is related to being Jewish - which might have nothing to do with it. But the Ratners take their religion or at least the tenets of it pretty seriously and the being buried and all that is a huge thing - someone is expected to actually be with the body until it's buried (and maybe if you follow the Middle East, you're familiar with how the Orthodox folks go to the scenes of attacks to be sure to collect all the body parts etc and in New Orleans, Jewish people have a waiver of some sort to allow them to bury their dead below ground, when everyone else is above ground because of the city being below sea level).
But other than these probably unlikely reasons, I don't know what else.
Thanks very much for doing that - picking up the phone, what a concept, huh? ;)