NC Mental Patient Left To Die

This has got to stop! I know this country has a lot of problems which need addressing; but the treatment and mistreatment of our metally ill people is a disgusting travesty.

How can we claim to live in a civilized society if we care nothing for those among us who cannot care for themselves? It's just wrong.




NC man dies after waiting 22 hours at hospital

By WHITNEY WOODWARD, Associated Press WriterTue Aug 19, 11:39 PM ET




A mental patient died after workers at a North Carolina 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 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 50-year-old Steven Sabock 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. The report states that he was in a hospital bed and later found unresponsive. A phone call placed after business hours to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner rang unanswered Tuesday.

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.

Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Tom Lawrence said the state team also may investigate what, if any, disciplinary action should be taken following Sabock's death.

Lawrence said the Sabock incident is isolated but that officials are concerned.

"It's not the kind of thing that we in our wildest dreams would expect to happen in our hospitals — in our wildest nightmares, I guess," Lawrence said.

Sabock's father, Nicholas, declined comment when reached by telephone Tuesday evening. A man who answered the phone listed for Susan Sabock, Steven's wife, hung up without commenting.

The investigation released Monday said Sabock died in April after Cherry Hospital nurses left him unattended in a chair and did not feed him or help him to the bathroom.

The report said Sabock sat, unattended, in the room for four work shifts. The report also found that Sabock, formerly of Roanoke Rapids, ate nothing the day he died and had little food in the three days preceding his death. The 47-page report also said workers were supposed to be closely monitoring Sabock's condition and may have forged documents that said they had.

The state has until Aug. 23 to file a report with the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services detailing what changes officials are making, Lawrence said.

If the center rejects the report, federal funds will be cut off beginning Sept. 1, Lawrence said.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dempsey Benton said in a statement that nurses may be reassigned to provide more patient supervision. Officials are also considering better ways to manage staff resources, he said.

A patient in New York died in June 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 else flagged down a staff member who got help for the unresponsive woman.

Brutal. That is just plain neglect, there is no way someone could sit there for 22 hours and have no one notice that he hasn't been moved or tended to.

This doesn't just happen to the mentally ill. When my mother was in the hospital, we paged for a nurse 4 times. Nobody ever came. I heard all this laughing and giggling in the hall. I stepped out, and there sat all the nurses away from their station. It is the responsibility of the individual to do their job. So many people are coasting these days. I hope the facility loses funding, and the people who neglected him lose their licenses. In fact, the ones who forged the documents need to go to jail.

This is why I don't like going to hospitals, they represent one of the grossest failures of our country. It's sad to think some of these probably got through school on scholarships that could've done to somebody who would've actually gave two shits about that man. I've only been in North Carolina for 4 years but I have to say this story doesn't surprise me.

Which country...? Oh, you mean England of course, since you write in English...
(sorry - just had to.. I'll read your post now.)

There is no excuse for this negligence, i manage sheltered support services for Adults with Learning and physical disabilities, though at times, sickness, emergency leave, challenging behaviour etc can tax our support service staffing, we have a Duty of care to the person which is always a priority.

As far as I can tell, there's only one country with a "North Carolina".
(sorry - just had to.. )

EDIT: As usual, NOW they get to writing procedures and guidelines, AFTER someone has lost their life. God forbid we actually plan these things out BEFORE somebody dies.

ahh you're right! I guess I should both read the whole article and learn the geography of other countries before I let my brain start wondering.

Nope. Too late. Lay across my lap and accept a thorough spanking.

Back on topic, this isn't the first of this kind of headline in recent times. Obviously it isn't uncommon, but last year there was story after story after story here in NC of seniors being poorly taken care of. They'd escape (how does an 86 year old escape?) their center, they'd receive poor medical care, they were subject to neglect. My grandparents are getting to that age. At seventy-something my grandfather just quit driving trucks, I assume because of health/age related reasons and I'd HATE to get a call that he passed because of neglect or is missing from his care center.

Ok! This is a good solution People should learn from us, how we solve our disagreents, lol

Agreed Marley, and sometimes being pro-active and thinking out the worst scenario and having contingencies to ensure vulnerable people and staff are safe.
Regular training,
Spot checks,
Employee reviews and competencies doing the job and my favourite is customer feedback, family and advocacy involvement and complaint procedures.
Person Centered Planning.

That's one of my biggest gripes about modern society, somebody HAS to die before policies that should've been enforced in the first place get written up. Of course, a few more people will have to die before the policies get through all the red tape and they hold 85,000,000,000,000,000 hearings about it. One thing we're not good at is expedient results. The more pressing the matter is, the more lives that are on the line, the longer it takes to get any action done.

I don't find it so shocking when you think of the million of so people being processed in hospitals every day. One has to slip through the cracks now and then. This of course does not make it any more acceptable, its just weird that 2 mentally ill patients outweight all the errors that occur in hospitals all the time. Children as well as adults get the wrong drugs, the wrong procedures and even refused treatment through insurance companies policies to the tune of thousands. Why 2 patients who die in waiting rooms is more news worthy then the thousands that die in OR's ER's and in there homes.

Dont get me started on this one.

All I'll say is that My father would probably be here today, if it wasnt for Hospital Neglect.