Brooklyn, US – 16th November, 2019: She didn’t have to die.
A young Brooklyn woman jumped to her death from a Midtown hotel because a city hospital failed to give her the care she needed, her parents charged in a lawsuit.
Jiawen Liu, 23, had been acting “erratically” near the Wolcott hotel on East 31st Street one night in August 2018, and was brought to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, her family said in the legal filing against the city and the hospital.
Concerned friends showed up to check on Liu, but were allegedly turned away by Bellevue staff who urged the pals to leave their contact information and “come back in the morning” because Liu was going to be evaluated, according to court papers.
Instead, the hospital’s “premature discharge” led to tragedy, her family alleges. Just a couple of hours after Liu was released, she was found dead on the second-floor balcony of the Wolcott.
The hospital let Liu leave “without notice to any caregiver, friend or family member,” even though she was “at risk for self-harm and suicide,” the family claimed.
“This all could have been avoided if they cared,” fumed attorney Robert Fellows, who is representing Liu’s parents, the petitioning co-administrators of her estate. “They didn’t care. All they had to do was admit this woman, stabilize her and give her the psychiatric help she needed.”
“It was goodbye and they discharged her,” Fellows said.
After she was released from Bellevue, Liu Ubered to the Wolcott at 5:20 a.m. and went to the rooftop where she carried out her death wish.
Liu’s suicide “arose from the medical negligence” of the city hospital, the Manhattan Supreme Court suit alleges.
“She didn’t receive care consistent with good and acceptable emergency medicine and psychiatric care,” Fellows said. “You just don’t show someone the door. This could have been avoided by a simple phone call.”
The attorney said the “fashion-oriented, artistic” Liu, who hailed from China, had been supervising exchange students from her native land who came to New York City to study film.
An HHC spokeswoman declined to comment, citing patient confidentiality laws.
Source: https://nypost.com/2019/11/16/womans-midtown-death-jump-could-have-been-avoided-family-says/