An 86-year-old dementia patient, Janie Marshall, became an indirect casualty of the novel coronavirus pandemic after she unknowingly violated the six feet of personal space recommendation inside of a Brooklyn hospital, and was pushed to her death.
What We Know:
- Cassandra Lundy, 32, has been charged with manslaughter and assault for the March 28 incident, which happened inside of the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn, New York. Lundy is being accused of pushing Marshall to the ground where she hit her head and subsequently died three hours later.
- Marshall was reportedly in the hospital after she complained to her niece Eleanor Leonard, 72, that she had severe pain in her stomach. Leonard called the ambulance and Marshall was taken to Woodhull, the same facility that treated her for similar symptoms earlier that same week.
- A day later, Marshall reportedly became confused and started to walk around the ER, when she grabbed Lundy’s IV pole for support. Lundy was allegedly frustrated that Marshall had broken social distancing measures during the interaction and an altercation between the two women was said to have ensued.
- The next morning, Leonard said she was told that her aunt had gone into cardiac arrest. She thought that was odd because her aunt never had any heart issues. Eleanor Leonard kept calling to find out about her condition. Hospital staff told Leonard that her aunt was getting care, leaving out the attack.
- Marshall’s family didn’t learn that she had been shoved until a family member called them about the news reports about the incident. Her niece couldn’t understand why the hospital never alerted her to the situation, even after Marshall had died.
- The death shocked the hospital staff as they have struggled to handle the volume of patients coming in with the disease and to keep order. At first, hospital workers gave Lundy a summons for disorderly conduct in the incident. But after the medical examiner ruled Marshall’s death a homicide, police officially charged Lundy with Marshall’s murder.
- Woodhull hospital officials released a statement saying they were cooperating with police. “We are terribly saddened by this death,” the hospital said in the statement.
- “How do you put your hands on an 86-year-old woman?” Antoinette Leonard Jean Charles, 41, Marshall’s grandniece, commented. “I also understand the fear level of every person in New York has. There is a notion of every man for themselves. But attacking an elderly person? That went too far.”
A spokesperson for Brooklyn Defender Services, which is representing Lundy, declined to comment when contacted by the newspaper.
