Blood clots caused waiting room death
Story Highlights
Autopsy says blood clots caused by long period of inactivity killed Esmin Green
Video of Green's June 19 death has received worldwide attention
The video appears to show hospital workers ignoring her lying on the floor
Her family says they intend to sue Kings County Hospital in New York
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Blood clots from a long period of inactivity killed a woman who died last month on a waiting room floor at a New York hospital, the state's medical examiner said Friday.
The death of Esmin Green attracted media attention worldwide when a security camera captured hospital employees and other patients appearing to ignore her when she slumped out of a chair and began convulsing on the floor.
The Jamaican immigrant had been involuntarily admitted to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on June 18 for what the hospital described as "agitation and psychosis."
The security video, released earlier this month by the New York Civil Liberties Union, showed that the mother of six waited in a chair for nearly 24 hours before she fell on the floor on June 19.
An hour went by before a hospital employee nudged Green, 49, with her foot and summoned help.
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Blood clots? They could have saved her life if they responded to her.
Ms. Green was admitted involuntarily for agitation, but if you look at the video, until her collapse she seems to be waiting fairly quietly. This suggests she was almost certainly given an antipsychotic when she arrived at the emergency room. Antipsychotics can be useful and necessary for severe mental illness, and if she really was schizophrenic (not a settled question-- it's a tricky and stigmatizing diagnosis, and one that's more likely to be given to black people in emotional distress, such as Ms. Green, more quickly) they may have been the best course. But they've got a lot of dangerous side effects, such as... deep vein thrombosis (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/957182.stm). Her death was likely caused not only by neglect and inactivity, but by the treatment itself.
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