US: Mentally ill woman left to die in hospital waiting room

Video cameras in the emergency room later showed the woman sliding off a chair at 5:32 a.m. the next morning, nearly a day after she had arrived. At first Ms. Green writhed on the floor, and then lay face down. For the next hour, a security guard and other staff members ignored her. At last one employee attempted to arouse the patient with her foot. Finally, an hour after she had fallen, an unsuccessful attempt was made to revive Ms. Green. A Jamaican-born immigrant, she worked at a day care center and was the mother of six children, the youngest 14 years old, all still living in Jamaica.

What brought this death in the emergency room to public notice was that it was captured on tape and also that the New York Civil Liberties Union had joined in a lawsuit against the public hospital a year ago, accusing the authorities of exactly the sort of behavior documented on the video. The suit charges not only that psychiatric patients are neglected at Kings County, but that they are kept in filthy surroundings and drugged in order to keep them more manageable.