Some psych patients wait days in hospital ERs

July 3rd, 2008 in Medicine & Health / Health
Some psych patients wait days in hospital ERs (AP)

In this still photo taken from video provided by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Esmin Green lies face down on the floor in the psychiatric ward of the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., Thursday, June 19, 2008. Green, 49, had been waiting in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours when she toppled from her chair at 5:32 a.m. and lay writhing, face down on the floor. Security guards and a member of the hospital\'s staff appeared to notice her prone body, but made no visible attempt to see if she needed help. Within an hour she was dead. (AP Photo/New York Civil Liberties Union)

(AP) -- When staffers at a Brooklyn hospital spotted a middle-aged woman lying face-down on a waiting room floor last month, it hardly seemed like cause for alarm.

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