Some justice for Esmin Green at last

Islandistas, you remember Esmin Green, don't you?

Please don't forget her. Esmin Green is a potent symbol of what can happen when society is too cynical and too absorbed to notice people.

Esmin Green was the Jamaican-born former teacher-turned-New York City-housekeeper who died on the floor of King's County Hospital in Brooklyn. She had been waiting for care for over 24 hours when she fell from her chair and thrashed in distress on the floor for a long while and even tried to get back on her chair. But no-one came to her aid, even though several passed her by and she lay on the floor for an hour before a nurse realised she was dead.

The story provoked outrage and Green's family rightly sued.

Now her family has received some... but still only some belated justice for Ms.Green. Yesterday, New York City accepted full responsibility for her death and have agreed to pay her family US$2 million for her wrongful death.

However, that is not nor should it be the end. This is not a settlement. Ms. Green's family has made that very clear, with their lawyer Sanford Rubenstein saying:

“What remains most important to this family is the criminal culpability for those responsible for what happened and those who attempted to cover it up, which continues, after all this time, to remain under investigation by the New York City Department of Investigation. In no way does this settlement affect that investigation, and the family remains adamant in its demands that anyone who committed a criminal act with regard to the death of Esmin Green or the attempt to cover it up be prosecuted criminally to the full extent of the law.”

We still await true justice for Esmin Green.

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Some justice for Esmin Green at last

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Walk good, Esmin Green

Today, Esmin Green was buried in her homeland of Jamaica at a service at the Duxes Seventh-Day Adventist Church in St. Catherine. The Jamaica Observer summed it up well, with a headline reading 'Esmin Green will not be ignored today'.

Her case will not be ignored for a long time as more heartbreaking details of her last moments on earth keep being unearthed.

According to the medical examiner's report, Esmin Green died of deep vein thrombosis - blood clots induced by a long period of physical inactivity. In other words, the 24 HOURS she had been sitting waiting on a chair in the emergency to get a room and be attended to. Good lord ...

She fell to the floor and thrashed for 30 MINUTES before she fell still and died. It was another 30 minutes by the time anyone checked her.

I don't know what to say. I have no words for such inhumanity.  It reminds me of the Kitty Genovese or bystander syndrome - the diffusion of responsibility or the indifference of good men.

All I have to offer is this - 'walk good' Ms. Green ... as people would say back a yaad. May light eternal shine upon you.

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Walk good, Esmin Green

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Esmin Green's family to sue hospital

Just a quick update on the Esmin Green tragedy. Her family is planning to sue Kings County Hospital for US$25 million.

Green's oldest daughter and family spokesperson Tecia Harrison was even more devastated upon actually seeing the security footage of her mother's dying moments.

From Carib World News via Caribbean 360:

Green`s eldest daughter, Tecia Harrison, who lives in Jamaica along with the rest of Green`s family, came to New York to attend her mother`s memorial service on Sunday and take her body back to Jamaica for burial.

After resisting, she finally watched the security camera footage for the first time.

"I wish I didn`t see it. I can't sleep," she said, sobbing at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. "The image of my mom lying on that floor and dying..."

Green's sister Brenda James added: "We don't treat animals like that. It's not to say she was in an isolated place. People were there and nobody reached out to help her."

"It's heartbreaking that my mother died in the way she died," added Harrison. "Not only did they allow her to die but they tried to cover it up. And what my brothers and sisters and I want is that the persons responsible should be behind bars."

Damn ... heartbreaking does not even begin to describe this situation.

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Esmin Green's family to sue hospital

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Outrage: Jamaican mother of 6 left to die on NY hospital floor

By now, I am sure news-savvy islandistas have heard or read of the tragic story of Esmin Green's emergency-room death at Kings Country Hospital in Brooklyn.

While others, including patients and a security guard looked on, Green who had been waiting 24 hours for a hospital bed, fell out of her chair to the floor. There, she thrashed about a bit, obviously in distress and even attempted to get on to her side to get herself back up. Then she fell still.

No-one came to her aid for over an hour. Security footage of the incident, released by lawyers who are suing KCH on an unrelated matter, showed a doctor passing by and peeking in at her and then going on about his business nonchalantly. A security guard also takes a look at her lying face down on the floor and a nurse who comes in prods her with her foot. Still no-one does anything - for an hour until a second nurse comes in and realises Ms. Green is dead. Esmin Green was left to die on the floor, worse than an animal.

So who is Esmin Green? My islandistas, she is one of us. A Caribbean woman - like us, striving to make a way for herself and her children and do better - just like us, or our mothers or aunts or grandmothers. She could have been anyone's Caribbean auntie or granny or sister that was living 'over in away' and sent back remittances to help those at home. She could have been anyone of us.

According to CaribWorld News, the 49 year old Ms. Green...

Was a cheerful resident of St. Catherine, Jamaica who served for a while as a teacher while raising six children. ... Eight years ago, in amove for greener pastures, Green migrated to the US alone. She became an integral part of a Canarsie, Brooklyn church community with many coming to know her simply as 'Sister Green'. And she worked hard as a housekeeper and a day-care worker to send money back to Jamaica to take care of her children.

Two years ago, she apparently suffered a nervous breakdown and it is this condition that led her to KCH, where she was admitted involuntarily, suffering from agitation and psychosis.

Her children, including one who is just 14 years old, are devastated. Her eldest daughter Tecia Harrison was quoted as saying: "Not even a dog is treated that way."

Making an already horrific situation worse, the second nurse who eventually called for help and too-late resuscitation efforts, falsified the records, saying she got up around 6 a.m. to use the bathroom when she actually collapsed at about 5:30 - half hour earlier. It goes on to say that she was "sitting quietly in the waiting area" at 6:20 a.m. - when the surveillance video shows her already sprawled on the floor.

Islandistas, I am heartsick. And afraid. We all know that there are more Caribbean people living outside of the region than in. We all know them - they are our family. They go to make better for themselves. And look at this. This woman was well-trained enough to be a teacher but ended up as a housekeeper in the US. And then in her dying moments she was just treated with a callousness and indifference that is shocking. They prodded her with their foot... like a dead animal in the road.

Bob said it best:

Man to man is so unjust...

You don't know who to trust.

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Outrage: Jamaican mother of 6 left to die on NY hospital floor

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