Alfredo Allen, a 15-year-old student at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, was taken to Kings County Hospital today in critical condition after being stabbed multiple times in the head with a pair of scissors. The attack reportedly began because the victim had stolen the ball from his attacker during a lunchtime pickup basketball game at the Prospect Park South school. more ›

After receiving an informal report that EMS units were "being triaged in the hallway due to a bedbug infestation in the triage room" at Kings County Hospital yesterday, we contacted a hospital spokeswoman, Hope Mason, for confirmation. She assured us that while an exterminator was called in, no bedbugs were found and the triage rooms were fully operational. So you can imagine our surprise when we opened up our copy of the Wall Street Journal this morning (subscription required) and found THIS: more ›

Scalpel... Forceps... Bedbugs? [UPDATE BELOW] It's never a good day to wind up at Kings County Hospital in need of medical attention, but today seems particularly undesirable. According to a report over the wires, EMS units "are being triaged in the hallway due to a bedbug infestation in the triage room at the hospital." For reference, this is the same hospital in which surveillance video showed a 49-year-old psychiatric patient left to die on the floor of a waiting room. But what a great place to be a blood-sucking parasite! From the bedbugs' point of view it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet at Ponderosa over there. Hope Mason, a spokesperson for the hospital, tells us they have an exterminator on site looking into the situation, but insisted it wasn't an "infestation." UPDATE 1:21 p.m.: Mason tells us the exterminator found no bedbugs, and the triage rooms are fully operational. more ›

Remember Kisha Jones — the Brooklyn wife accused of trying to kill her husband's out-of-wedlock baby by tricking the mother into taking an abortion-inducing medicine then attempting to poison the infant with tainted breast milk? Prosecutors now allege that after the baby's birth, she posed as a hospital administrator in an unsuccessful attempt to have the infant taken off its respirator! more ›

A nurse's assistant was brutally attacked while tending to a patient at Kings County Hospital—and now another patient is in custody. Robert Rush, who was in the psychiatric unit, was charged with assault for attacking Sandra Douglas and two other people. The Daily News reports that on Tuesday "Rush, who weighs more than 300 pounds, walked into a room where Douglas, 49, was attending to another patient about 5:30 a.m. and clocked her in the head. When she fell, he repeatedly kicked and hit her, witnesses said." Douglas's son, who was at his mother's bedside in intensive care, spoke to staffers about the attack, "He was just beating on her, banging her head on the floor. It took four people to get him off her." On Sunday, Rush also assaulted two staffers who tried to stop him from attacking another patient, but wasn't charged. He also told NY1, "It shouldn't happen. You should be able to go to work and know that there is security in a facility like that." The Health and Hospitals Corporation says it's investigating the incident; Kings County's psych unit is also where patient Esmin Green died in a waiting room, after waiting for over a day to be seen. more ›

A year after a 49-year-old woman died in the psychiatric waiting room at Kings County Hospital, the Department of Investigations has issued a report that says, "Discrepancies were uncovered that called into question the accuracy of the medical records created by certain Kings County Hospital doctors." In other words, hospital staffers—doctors and nurses—falsified records and lied to investigators about the care that Esmin Green received. more ›

The city agreed to a $2 million settlement with the family of Esmin Green, a woman who died after being ignored in a waiting room at Kings County Hospital's psychiatric ward. Green had been waiting for almost a day last July until she received medical attention which came too late. Her decline—falling off the seating and writhing on the floor until she was lifeless— was captured on surveillance video, which showed a number of staffers ignore her; they only acted after another patient alerted them. more ›

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. more ›

The police are investigating the death of a 2-week-old baby, who was found dead in the mother's apartment. The baby had initially been reported missing from Kings County Hospital: According to the Post, the mother told ER workers "she had taken him there and wanted to see him," but when the hospital couldn't find any record of the baby, they contacted the police who went to the mother's apartment in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. The NY Times reports that the mother has two other young children, "about 2 and 3 years old." The authorities removed the children from the apartment: "They were in pajamas and seemed unstartled by the activity swirling around them: the police, the news cameras." more ›

A woman tells the Post that Kings County Hospital misidentified her father Rodney Wells and refused to change his name on his hospital ID bracelet. Staffers insisted on having ID to fix the mistake, so Reshena Wells went home to get one--all while her father was being treated for his heart attack--and while on the errand, Wells says "a doctor phoned to say he had died." Then her father was sent to the morgue under the wrong name (though with a note saying "his real name could be Rodney Wells"). Kings County is the same hospital where a neglected patient died after collapsing in the psychiatric ward ER's waiting room. more ›

The City Medical Examiner released the results of Esmin Green's autopsy; and King's County Hospital treatment, or lack thereof, of the dead woman may have had more to do with her death than callous neglect. The M.E. found that Green collapsed after blood clots that formed in her legs as she sat in the hospital's psychiatric ward waiting room migrated to her lungs and killed her. more ›

The daughter of the woman who was neglected in a hospital waiting room and died after being ignored by staffers has will sue the hospital, city and city's hospital agency for $25 million. more ›

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. more ›

After being rocked by the death of Esmin Green, a psychiatric patient who died at Kings County Hospital, the city announced it would pay for her funeral expenses. A video showed Green waiting in the waiting room for almost 24 hours, collapsing to the floor with numerous staffers ignoring her. Mayor Bloomberg said developer Forest City Ratner will fly Green's relatives from Jamaica to NYC and back, as well as fly the body back to Jamaica. Though six staffers have been fired, Green's daughter told the Daily News, "I'm going to put it in the hands of American law. But I can tell you this: That hospital, it needs to be closed down." more ›

After a surveillance video showed hospital staff ignoring a psychiatric patient's last dying hours in the emergency room of Kings County Hospital, city health officials say they will make a series of changes, like checking on patients every 15 minutes. more ›

A distressing video was released showing a 49-year-old psychiatric patient left to die in the waiting room of Kings County Hospital. The video shows the woman, identified as Esmin Green, slump and fall to the ground--and two guards and a doctor look in and ignore her. Finally, a nurse comes to check on her, but not before kicking Green, who was dead at that point. more ›

In an extremely embarrassing incident for the Brooklyn DA's office, an audio technician taped over a statement made by a cop killer while in custody. The DA's office will now have to rely on a detective's notes taken during that statement and the videotape recorded during a follow-up interview with suspect Robert Ellis. more ›

Oh no! An 8-month-old baby bitten by a family dog was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, the FDNY responded to a fire that broke out in a Midwood apartment building, only to find two girls, ages 1 and 2, alone. The girls' mother had left them with her boyfriend, who went out. Sigh. more ›

An early morning argument Saturday left a 19-year-old dead and a building on Ocean Parkway besieged with heavily armed police searching for the killer. Allen Tahiraj was shot on Ocean Parkway around 3:30am Saturday morning as he congregated with friends. One friend said, "There was a little argument and one of the kids pulled a gun." more ›

The health scare of the season continued this week with news of an outbreak of the methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) "superbug" at an Upper East Side hospital's children's ward. The New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center said that nine infants were infected with the drug-resistant strain of bacteria that killed a New York 7th Grader last month. Omar Rivera Jr. was felled by the staph infection on October 14th after being misdiagnosed at Kings County... more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing patient at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, a car vs. overpass on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, and a truck explosion on 64th Rd. and 108th St. in Queens.
• A sharp-sighted deckhand on a Staten Island Ferry spotted a pistol sticking out of the pocket of a dim-witted passenger snoozing on a Sunday morning ferry. The passenger, who was arrested, had a long record of criminal weapons possessions.
• The wife of the slain orthodontist Daniel Malakov previously met with a political consultant to plan a custody protest with her daughter in front of the White House. She gave up her plan when advised that "nobody would care."
• Lindsay Lohan is reportedly looking to rejuvenate her image by appearing as the assistant manager at a fast-food restaurant on the television series "Ugly Betty."
• Strip-club Scores is sponsoring a food drive with collected food dedicated to City Harvest called "Cans for Cans." Club customers will gain free admission with a printed-out copy of the promotion from the business' web site and a donated can of food.
• A very interesting look at how pidgin Gaelic by Irish newcomers to NYC shaped modern American slang.
• Community Board 10 will be holding a public hearing on the proposed rezoning of 125th St. on November 14th.
• Bomb scare at Laguardia airport.

Last week, the I.S. 211 in Canarsie told parents that 7th grader Omar Rivera had died from the antibiotic-resistant staph infection MRSA. Now his mother is suing the city and Kings County Hospital for $25 million over the mistreatment of the 12-year-old. more ›

In addition, police discovered the body of a woman in her 30s on the floor of her Suffolk St. apartment in Manhattan's Lower East Side last night around 3 a.m. Neighbors called the police complaining of a foul odor coming from the woman's apartment. more ›

A 16-year-old boy was shot in the head after looking out of the window of his Bushwick home on Cooper Street. The police believe Tavin Alves Clarke looked outside after hearing gunfire and was shot between 2-3AM. He wasn't found until 5AM, when his 5-year-old brother woke up and found him bleeding and "slumped by the third-floor window." The child ran to his mother and sister for helping crying, "My brother was bleeding!" more ›

On Friday night, three young women were shot while sitting on a stoop in Flatbush on Friday night. Witnesses say that the gunman was riding a bicycle: He got off when opened fire around 10PM, aiming at two men. He missed the men, but ended up hitting the three women. Then he got on his bike again, heading towards Flatbush Avenue. more ›

In late November 2005, police officer Dillon Stewart and his partner, Paul Lipka, stopped a 1990 Infiniti for a traffic violation (driving with dealer plates) in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. One of the men inside fired five bullets into the unmarked police car (Stewart and Lipka were uniformed), and Stewart (pictured) and Lipka proceeded to chase the car. But then Stewart realized that he had been shot -- the bullet had missed his bulletproof vest by a quarter of an inch and hit his heart. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An overturned vehicle on the Triborough Bridge, which can't be good for all those getting away for the weekend; an escaped prisoner in The Bronx; and multiple pedestrians were struck Dyckman Street & Broadway.
• Early this morning in Bed-Stuy, a police officer sitting in a marked vehicle was shot in the arm. The officer was treated and released from Kings County Hospital but the NYPD is still searching for the shooter.
• A cat rescue group was formed to trap Roosevelt Island's feral cats (there are about 100, but many die during the winter)
• If you're going to shoot a Tylenol commercial that isn't site-specific, why film at the Hotel Chelsea?
• Still stuck at work or out of vacation days already? Perhaps you should try getting a job at IBM, a company that doesn't keep track of how many vacation days you take a year. While the policy sounds great, apparently it makes people work longer hours and work during vacations.
• PETA is crying foul over the Orthodox Jewish and Hasidic ritual kapparot, where sins are symbolically transfered to a chicken that is swung over ones head. PETA says the chickens are disposed of improperly and possibly mishandled, but a Hasidic activist says the tradition where as many as 50,000 chickens in Brooklyn are used, will continue.
• Kew Gardens residents are upset with the Department of Education for creating a transfer school for "older students who may have had difficulty at their previous schools" in their neighborhood without telling them.

A 12-year-old girl, who was with her 5-year-old brother, was struck by a bullet on St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights. The Post reports that the bullet "exited her body" on the left side. The girl was not badly hurt and even managed to react calmly by heading to a bodega for safety. more ›