You remember that lady who fell down and died in front of everybody in a New York hospital? What are you, living in the past, that was 8 whole days ago! But here’s a footnote lest you were to think something relevant was about to happen — that video didn’t hit the airwaves as the result of an investigation into the deplorable conditions of our nation’s yadda yadda, it was a fluke stumbled on while investigating some other unrelated everyday civil rights violation. See that puff of smoke going up, that would be the change in the air, an allowance that what happened in Kings County Psychiatric Hospital happens all the time in those places, in your neighborhood and mine, standard and unremarkable. Putting eyes on it is what’s remarkable, which leads to necessary outrage which leads to — oh look, something shiny!
“WHY?” asked NBC. Why in the name of all that’s sacred did this poor, black, aging, psychiatric, involuntarily committed woman slump to the floor and die in the space of one hour to the callous indifference of everyone around her? If only there were some dots to connect, we might begin to understand.
How horrible. What an awful way to die. So alone.
What worries me is first, of course, there probably won’t be anything done. Second, it probably happens more often than we know or would be comfortable knowing.
Whenever someone comes into an emergency room complaining of a stomach ache, head ache a counselor should speak with them. I am pretty somatic. I get physical symptoms when I am triggered.
Counselors could do intake screening. Oh, but that would like make sense, right?