A psychiatric patient, 49-year-old Esmin Green, died at the Kings County Hospital Center Psychiatric Emergency Department in New York City after collapsing on the floor, where she lied for one hour without receiving any kind of help.

The incident took place in the waiting area of the psychiatric emergency room, and surveillance cameras recorded the precise time of the collapse, 5:32 a.m., and that of the hospital staff's intervention, at 6:36 a.m., when she was already dead. The Jamaican woman had been brought to the hospital involuntarily because of alleged psychotic behavior.

The City Health and Hospital Corp. acknowledged the incident and said six staff members were found guilty for their lack of response, of whom two were already fired and four are pending termination proceedings. The surveillance tape was used as proof in a lawsuit filed by the Mental Hygiene Legal Service, New York Civil Liberties Union and Kirland & Ellis LLP. The suit alleges inhumane conditions and treatment at the health care facility.

The hospital also falsified the medical charts, the tape proves. The NY Daily News has studied both the tape and the charts, and it appears that the chart reads that the woman was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead, which is just one of the other false entries in the chart.

The above-mentioned suit cites the testimony of five patients which say they were severely abused or/and neglected. Some were put in soiled beds, others were left to sleep in wheelchairs, and the list goes on. A City investigation is underway, while the hospital seeks to improve the terrible conditions which await its psychiatric patients.