The looming closure of Mount Sinai Beth Israel has led to a man’s death, a new legal filing in a case against the health system alleges.
In an affidavit filed Wednesday, Greenwich Village resident Kathleen Faust alleges that her husband, George Faust, died because of short staffing and lack of treatment he received at Mount Sinai hospitals. He fell while alone at home on Jan. 15 and suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung, according to the filing. On Jan. 16, an ambulance took him to Beth Israel, the legal filing alleges, where he was taken into the emergency room, had X-rays and was given a procedure to inflate his lung.
“The staff informed my husband that Beth Israel did not have sufficient staff to handle a ‘trauma patient,’” Faust wrote. “He was placed back into an ambulance and was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside.”
After arriving at Morningside, seven miles away, Kathleen Faust alleges that her husband spent nearly two days in the emergency room on a cot because the hospital did not have enough staff to move him into an inpatient room. He was later admitted and then released on Jan. 22 after being prescribed medication for pain, according to the documents. Faust claims he received little actual treatment and Mount Sinai did not understand the extent of her husband’s injuries, follow-up or arrange for in-home nursing care.
As a result, George Faust was then taken to New York City Health + Hospitals/Bellevue on Feb. 2 with “unbearable” abdominal pain, according to the court filing. Doctors there found that blood had accumulated in his lungs and abdomen, the filing said. He died on Feb. 4 at the hospital.
“It is my belief that my husband’s two weeks of suffering and his death would not have happened had Beth Israel Hospital been in full service,” Faust wrote. “What happened to my husband should not happen to anyone. This Court can do something to avoid this in the future.”
While he declined to comment on the pending litigation, Mount Sinai representative Loren Riegelhaupt said Mount Sinai has “deep sympathy” for Faust’s family. But, he emphasized, Beth Israel is not and has never been a certified trauma center.
“A patient with traumatic injuries like the one in question should always be transferred to a certified trauma center, no matter where the patient entered the system. This tragic event is completely unrelated to the planned closure of MSBI,” he told Crain’s. Mount Sinai Morningside operates a Level 2 trauma center.
Faust’s filing is the latest claim filed in a February lawsuit against the health system and the state department of health which alleges that Mount Sinai has been deliberately cutting staff and services to expedite the closure of the East Village hospital. In more documents filed Wednesday, attorney for the plaintiffs Arthur Schwartz argued that the health system has been understaffing hospitals across its network, as evidenced by recent penalties Mount Sinai has faced for short nurse staffing in several units at multiple hospitals. The consequences of the understaffing have and will ripple across the system, Schwartz said.
Patients will suffer “irreparable injury” unless the court orders Mount Sinai to restore services it has cut, Schwartz argued, representing the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel Hospital.
Mount Sinai’s plan to close the hospital because of insurmountable financial losses has sparked intense legal and community backlash. Community groups have raised concerns about how the shutdown would impact vulnerable and elderly patients who would have to travel further to access an emergency room and critical care services, while Mount Sinai has maintained that it is not abandoning the downtown community.
Mount Sinai plans to close Beth Israel on July 12 and has not yet filed its reply papers in court.
This story has been updated with comments from Mount Sinai.
Jacqueline Neber , 2024-03-13 14:13:34
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