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N.C. man dies after waiting 22 hours at hospital
This is a disturbing story about the lack of care for the mentally ill at a hospital.
In North Carolina, a mental patient died after workers at a hospital left him in a chair for 22 hours without feeding him or helping him use the bathroom, said federal officials who have threatened to cut off the facility’s funding, the Associated Press reports.
The state sent a team Tuesday to help Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro draft new procedures to ensure patients receive proper care.
An investigator’s report released Monday found that Steven Sabock, 50, died in April after he at one point choked on medication and had been left sitting in a chair for close to a day at the facility about 50 miles southeast of Raleigh. Surveillance video showed hospital staff watching television and playing cards just a few feet away.
It was not clear from the report exactly how Sabock died.
Federal officials have threatened to cut off funding because of Sabock’s death and a report that a physician punched a patient after the teen bit the doctor.
You may recall a story from June in which a patient in New York died after she waited in a hospital’s mental ward waiting area for nearly 24 hours. Security video showed her writhing on the floor. It was nearly an hour before someone flagged down a staff member who got help for the unresponsive woman.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Health, National news
Comments
By People Lover
August 20, 2008 11:20 AM | Link to this
What is wrong with the doctor punching the patient who bit him?
By disgusted
August 20, 2008 8:52 PM | Link to this
people lover - what about the man that DIED sitting in the chair for ALMOST 24 HRS. where is the compassion for him dummy