NY - 3 hospitals failed to help dying deaf patient Alfred Weinrib, 82

Alfred Weinrib died of cancer but never knew his diagnosis after 3 Long Island hospitals allegedly did not have sign language interpreters on staff.

By Kathianne Boniello | New York Post | Feb 20, 2014

A cancer-stricken deaf man died without ever knowing his diagnosis after three Long Island medical facilities failed to get him sign-language interpreters — for seven months, his family charges.

Alfred Weinrib, 82, even attempted suicide after nurses at one geriatric rehab facility ignored his desperate pleas for help getting to the bathroom because they couldn’t understand him, his children claim in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit.

The nightmare began in September 2012, when the longtime Flushing, Queens, resident went to Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, LI, with seizures. A doctor there allegedly told the family the hospital didn’t provide interpreters for the deaf.

Nothing changed after Weinrib, a printer by trade who once wrote for Silent News, a national newspaper for the deaf, was transferred to the Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Commack, his children say.

And a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, where Weinrib was also treated, laughed when the family showed her a sign in the facility encouraging deaf patients to request interpreters, according to court papers.

“Diagnosis and treatment options were not explained in a meaningful way to Alfred Weinrib or his family,” allege Lance and Melinda Weinrib, who are “Procedures were performed . . . without fully and clearly explaining . . . the risks and benefits.”

Videophones, which should have helped Weinrib communicate, were broken, his kids — who are also deaf — claim.

He died in April of malignant melanoma.

“This is one of the worst cases of it’s kind that we’ve seen or read about,” family attorney Eric Baum said.

http://nypost.com/2014/02/16/3-li-hospitals-failed-to-help-deaf-patient-who-then-died-suit/