Community says farewell to J'can who died neglected at NY hospital

The body of Esmin Green, the Jamaican woman who died under questionable circumstances at King's County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, last month, has been flown to Jamaica for burial.

Friends, loved ones and a concerned community said goodbye to her on Sunday, July 5, at a funeral service held at the church where Green worshipped in Canarsie, Brooklyn.

The Jesus Is Lord Sanctuary, a Seventh-day Church of God, was packed to capacity with mourners spilling over into the church yard and the streets.

They shared the tight space with police and members of the international media who turned out to cover the funeral of a mentally ill immigrant who died after waiting more than 24 hours for medical attention which she only received after she was dead.

Condemnation

While praise was being heaped on the deceased inside the church - who was remembered as an animated and generous woman who loved children - strong words of condemnation were being echoed outside for the system and the workers who failed her.

"It's a disgrace knowing that King's County falls within an immi-grant community and I would say some 90 per cent of the workers are immigrants, and for another immi-grant to be treated the way she was is a shame," said Michael Russell, a community activist who is running for City Council.

A security camera, in the emergency room of the psychchiatric ward where Miss Green was waiting to be seen, showed her falling off a chair at 5:32 a.m. on Thursday, June 19 - more than 24 hours after she was brought there by emergency medical service workers. Two security guards at different times peeked at her and one staff member even nudged her prone form, now on the hospital floor, with a foot. But no one assisted her.

An hour after she collapsed, medical staff moved in with their equipment to revive the now-dead woman.

"Those people who saw her and never came to help should be locked up," one of Green's friends expressed with horror.

"She was honest, a prayer warrior, always with her Bible," said another close friend, Pauline Robinson, whom everyone calls 'Miss Cherry'.

Miss Cherry explained that Green was a hard worker who had been laid off and had lost the lease on her rented apartment.

"She can't tek problem," she added, providing a clue to what may have caused her friend's mental breakdown.

Agitated state

Green had stayed with Miss Cherry over the three days preceding her death when she awoke agitated early Wednesday morning, June 18, insisting on calling her pastor, Marilyn Ann Johnson.

It was 4:15 a.m. when she ran off and, as Pastor Johnson later recounted, turned up 4:43 a.m. at the Bishop's residence where the pastor and her husband were staying.

This was the fourth time Pastor Johnson had seen her through a breakdown and once again, attempted to calm her parishioner's agitated spirit and get her medical help.

"She was screaming that her soul was in trouble; that she needs forgiveness and if she don't get forgiveness, she won't have mercy," the pastor explained.

Guarded privacy

Johnson said she guarded Green's privacy during her mental crises because the woman she called "a friend and a sister, a sweet person" was embarrassed about her situation and did not want anyone to know, including her family in Jamaica.

As the community attempts to put together the scenario which led to Green's death, what has emerged is a picture of a woman with a fragile mind, to whom the immigrant life had not always been kind.

In difficult times, she relied on friends and her church family for assistance but when she sought medical help for her fractured mind, she came upon a system with its own fractures and fell through those cracks.

Esmin Elizabeth Green, a dressmaker by training, was 49 years old when she died.

She was born in Lluidas Vale, St Catherine, and was the mother of six - Tecia, Darion, Susan, Tanya, Darryl and Travanis. She also had seven sisters and six brothers.

She started visiting New York in 1995 and moved there permanently in 2000. It was the last time her daughter Tecia saw her alive.

Heartbroken

When she saw her mother again with a handful of relatives from Jamaica, just over the weekend, it was to claim her body and escort her remains home.

The helpless woman that inter-national viewers have come to know via the disturbing videotape of her death is not the woman her daughter knew in life.

"My mother was one of the bravest, strongest women I've ever met in this world," a very tearful but stoic Harrison said to members of the press gathered at her mother's funeral. "My brothers and sisters are heartbroken. They're weeping, especially my brother Darryl. He's 20 years old. He was my mother's big son. They didn't see each other, but they talked a lot on the phone."

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