Nightmarish Conditions at Kings County Hospital's Psych Ward

Kings County Hospital Center was founded 175 years ago, but it didn't become truly infamous until last year when that horrible video surfaced, depicting a woman being left for dead on the floor of the ER waiting room for nearly an hour. Now, after a year-long probe, the Justice Department has documented an appalling pattern of sexual and violent assaults at the psychiatric unit. Read no further if you think One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is hard to stomach.

The damning 58 page report [PDF] concludes that the unit is basically being run like a prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Loretta King and Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell describe "highly dangerous conditions" which "require immediate attention." Such as:

• Allegations that a woman was raped and that a 14-year-old was forced to perform oral sex on a 16-year-old.
• Also, an autistic patient was allegedly forced to perform oral sex.
• A 14-year-boy caught having sex tried to hang himself with a video game wire.
• Another patient who was supposed to be under close observation cut herself with a paper clip and swallowed the clip. She later swallowed staples in the presence of staff, who called the incident "a minor, self-inflicted injury."
• An October brawl among six patients left one needing surgery.
• The staff routinely administered injections of more than one antipsychotic medication simultaneously, despite the risk of side effects and overdosing.

Speaking to reporters at the hospital’s new $153 million building in East Flatbush, Alan D. Aviles, president of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, yesterday announced that during the past year he's been focused on implementing "radical change in the delivery of behavior health services," and, because of the investigation, has replaced top two administrators and hired more staff. "It would be disingenuous of me to suggest that we could prevent all such future incidents, but we can do better," Aviles promised.