Personal Injury Law

Brooklyn hospital staff falsified records to hide neglect

By Hurley, McKenna & Mertz

The Washington Post reports (AP, 6/20), ?staff members at a Brooklyn hospital falsified medical records and lied to authorities in an attempt to cover up the neglect of a patient who died on the waiting room floor.? Esmin Green, age 49, suffered for almost 24 hours in a psychiatric emergency room at the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York before collapsing from a blood clot.

According to witnesses and waiting room camera footage, Ms. Green was lying ?on the floor for an hour, in full view of nurses, doctors, and security guards, before a nurse nudged her body with her foot, then checked her pulse. By then she was dead.? 6 hospital employees lost their jobs in connection with this incident, and some may face criminal charges.

Shortly after Ms. Green died, a senior nurse at the hospital made three falsified entries in the medical records ?to make it appear as though she had been checking regularly on her patient.? Security camera footage confirmed that these entries were in fact false. A nurse?s aid separately falsified the record claiming ?he had observed Ms. Green asleep during the hour when she was actually lying face down on the floor dying.? Both later admitted to authorities that the records were false.

As a medical malpractice lawyer in Chicago, I am deeply disturbed by the events leading up to the death of Esmin Green. I am hopeful that the legal proceedings in this case will ensure that such careless actions by hospital staff are never repeated.

Full post as published by Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).