New Jersey, US – 19th December, 2018: An "atmosphere of terror and retaliation" has led to serious assaults and several deaths at Greystone Psychiatric Park in recent years, according to a blistering lawsuit filed against the state by the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender.
Almost every single doctor at the facility has been assaulted, including several who required ambulance rides, hospitalizations, surgeries, or extended time off of work, the suit alleges. That constant threat of violence has led to a "mass exodus" and a critical shortage of doctors that has prevented patients from getting the psychiatric and medical care they require — the crux of the civil rights lawsuit.
Most patients at the hospital have been committed there by a judge.
The lawsuit names Gov. Phil Murphy, Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal, Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, as well as past and present Greystone leaders and members of former Gov. Chris Christie's administration.
The Murphy administration has defended the hospital in recent weeks; Elnahal said on Dec. 7 that the hospital was totally in compliance with safety and treatment requirements. A national accrediting organization had given the hospital its 3-year stamp of approval, and said it found the hospital to be safe in an October visit.
Murphy called the allegations "very troubling" and said Elnahal was "all over it" in an interview on Wednesday.
The Attorney General's office declined to comment.
Greystone first opened on the site in 1876 and by the 1950s housed over 6,500 patients. The hospital was plagued by problems and scandals and in the mid-1970s, a grand jury investigation into Greystone led to a large class-action lawsuit, the indictment of five people and the creation of a court-appointed oversight committee.
The oversight committee issued several critical reports about conditions in the hospital, including one in 2000 that caused then-Gov. Christine Whitman to call for the closure of the old hospital. A brand-new hospital on the site opened in 2008, and the oversight committee disbanded shortly after.
Despite these efforts, serious and violent problems persisted, the lawsuit alleges.
The new hospital was designed to house 510 patients, a number that was quickly surpassed, the lawsuit says. Overcrowding was only made worse by the closure of Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital, which was home to geriatric patients, and two homes for those with developmental disabilities, North Jersey Developmental Center and Woodbridge Developmental Center.
Overcrowding, paired with a lack of medical professionals, created a dangerous staff shortage that put patients at risk and led to several deaths, the lawsuit says. Just six psychiatrists are employed full-time at the hospital, but the lawsuit says 29 are required to adequately care for patients.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four patients, only one of whom has been discharged from the hospital. They are seeking class action status to include former and current patients of the hospital.
The violent assaults were a daily occurrence, with about five reported every day, according to the lawsuit. In 2016 alone, 1,816 assaults — 654 of them resulting in injuries — were reported. The data for 2017 was on track to become the most violent year on record, the lawsuit alleges, but multiple sets of records were maintained to lower the number of assaults in public reports.
The 60-page lawsuit outlines some of the assaults, many in graphic detail. In one instance this year, a patient "repeatedly assaulted a female psychologist by pushing her to the floor and subsequently picking her up and throwing her back down to the floor. The patient then climbed on a table, jumped on the psychologist, and proceeded to stomp on her, despite the presence of other staff members," the suit says.
In June 2018, a nurse was beaten so severely she was taken by ambulance to the hospital; That same day another nurse was assaulted (she finished her shift), the suit says.
A doctor was seriously injured in an October 2016 attack; the suit alleges that the doctor, a man in his 60s, was attempting to calm down a violent patient when the patient "gouged
out the flesh from the physician's face, causing blood to stream on the floor."
The assaults are not limited to doctors. One patient allegedly assaulted his own mother during visiting hours so severely she sustained permanent brain damage.
Supervisors working in the hospital are accused of failing to respond to doctor assaults happening right in from of them. Medical director Evaristo O. Akerele, who is named as a defendant, is accused of refusing to check on a doctor who lay bloodied and unconscious after an assault because he was "too busy" to leave his office.
"All available" calls for help, when an emergency is serious enough to require high levels of back-up, were frequently responded to like the doctors were "out for a stroll," the suit alleges, and a cart supposed to be stocked with emergency supplies was frequently missing basic life-saving tools, like breathing tubes and epinephrine.
The constant violence has led to the deterioration of patients' mental and physical health, with many afraid to sleep through the night, the suit says. Staffers are accused of failing to intervene in patient-on-patient assaults or in instances of self-harm and suicidal actions.
Illegal drugs also remain a problem at the hospital. "There is suspicion that Greystone staff are involved in this drug trade," the lawsuit alleges.
Several patients have overdosed and died as a result of illegal drugs, the suit says. There also have allegedly been several deaths tied to the improper prescribing of psychiatric medications and a lack of basic life-saving medications.
Deaths are not limited to patients. A doctor died after suffering a heart attack at the hospital and failing to receive proper care, something a doctor allegedly called a "complete travesty," the suit says.
Source: https://patch.com/new-jersey/morristown/assaults-deaths-plague-greystone-psychiatric-hospital-lawsuit