AOC does some good

 

Queens Post

The lawmaker secured nearly $7 million in funding for 10 projects — eight of which are in Queens — as part of an omnibus bill the House passed late Wednesday night. The massive bill was passed to keep the federal government funded and open.

The funding secured by Ocasio-Cortez will support renovations at Elmhurst Hospital, multiple educational and vocational training programs, the repair of two public piers in Flushing Bay and the placement of family support counselors in two Queens high schools, among other initiatives.

“From reducing maternal mortality and youth violence, to training a new generation of green labor, I know these projects will be deeply impactful to our families throughout Queens and The Bronx,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. ”

She secured $3 million for Elmhurst Hospital. The hospital will use the money to renovate its obstetrical inpatient facilities so that expectant mothers can deliver and bond with their new babies in private rooms, which Elmhurst Hospital doesn’t have.

She secured another $2 million for Chhaya Community Development Corporation, a Jackson Heights-based organization that provides housing assistance to residents primarily from the South Asian community. The money will help the nonprofit procure a bigger building for its headquarters and create a community space that will allow it to serve 3,000 more clients per year.

The congresswoman also earmarked $225,000 for Queens Community House, an organization that provides many services including offering alternative high schools for students who have either dropped out of school or fallen substantially behind in credits. The funds would be used by QCH to hire additional family support counselors to support students in two schools it operates in Corona and Elmhurst. Currently, QCH has just one counselor who supports students across five schools.

Ocasio-Cortez allocated funding for a second health care facility, in addition to Elmhurst Hospital. A local health center in Corona, Plaza Del Sol Family Health Center, will receive $96,150 to expand and upgrade its telehealth technology to serve more patients.

The lawmaker got approval on two funding requests for Sunnyside Community Services as well.

Since the pandemic is winding down, Cuomo feels hospitals need budget cuts

 

QNS

Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz joined City Council candidate Shekar Krishnan, union representatives and members of the New York State Nurses Association at Elmhurst Hospital to protest Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed $600 million budget cuts to public hospitals.

“Our community suffered so much during the pandemic. Our essential and frontline workers were put in harm’s way every day. Elmhurst Hospital was overrun and undersupplied, and our communities lost so many loved ones,” Cruz said. “For the executive branch to now propose cutting more than $20 million from Elmhurst Hospital’s budget is both dangerous and cruel. These cuts have been rejected by the Assembly as they will be fatal to our healthcare workers and they will be fatal to the many patients in their care. Our hospitals need more funding, not less.”

Krishnan, a community activist and civil rights lawyer specializing in fighting housing discrimination and preventing community displacement, co-founded Communities Resist, a legal services organization that addresses housing and racial justice in Queens and Brooklyn.

“It is unbelievable and irresponsible that in the midst of a global pandemic there are proposals to cut funding for our public hospitals. Elmhurst Hospital serves nearly a million residents and was the epicenter of the epicenter of the pandemic,” Krishnan said. “We cannot stand by and let our community be deprioritized and disinvested in again and again. We demand full funding for our public hospitals, expansion of the new York Cares Act, and greater support for community-based healthcare services.”

Nefritte Larkin spoke on behalf of the New York State Nursing Association which represents more than 9,000 workers in the city’s public hospital system.

“We are the frontline workers. We were here every single day and we’re still here,” Larkin said. “For Governor Cuomo to even suggest that there will be budget cuts to our safety net hospitals is a gross insult not just to the communities of color but also to the workers.”

 

Elmhurst Hospital is at overcapacity and under supplied to handle the COVID-19 pandemic

New York Times

If only St. Johns Hospital were still a hospital

NY Post

Scores of people standing in line to be tested for the coronavirus Monday were seen violating “social distancing” guidelines as they huddled together in the cold rain outside Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

As many as 152 people were lined up at one point, with some so close together that their umbrellas overlapped — violating the six-foot rule advised by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
Cops wearing thin paper face masks kept control while a hospital worker — wearing a yellow plastic gown open in the back, a blue hairnet and a face mask behind a clear plastic face shield — questioned each person about their symptoms before directing them to a tent where the tests were administered.

Mayor Bill de Blasio told 1010 WINS on Monday morning that Elmhurst “has had an extraordinary amount of activity and that’s in part because there’s 2.3 million people in Queens and fewer hospitals proportionately.”

The wait at Elmhurst Hospital is a killer

From the Daily News:

The wait time for the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital Center is in critical condition.

The average emergency room patient at the Queens facility waited 114 minutes to be seen by a doctor in 2016, according to records obtained by the Daily News.

The nearly two-hour delay was the lengthiest recorded at any of the city’s 11 public hospitals in at least the last five years — and close to four times as long as the national average of 30 minutes, according to data for 2014 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For some of the patients, the wait is actually longer than two hours.

Hospital staff attributed the lengthy delays to a lack of nurses.

At times, one nurse is responsible for up to 12 patients, said Pattie-Dean Thompson, an ER nurse.

“That leaves us running from patient to patient,” she said.

Another issue is the large number of patients with minor ailments flooding the emergency room.

The long wait time comes as the number of emergency room patients at the public hospital has decreased, records show.

Construction worker buried in dirt avalanche

From the Daily News:

A construction worker was rescued from a collapsed trench in Queens on Thursday.

Police said the 40-year-old worker was overseeing construction of the foundations and laying rebar on 72nd Road in Forest Hills when a wall of dirt fell and crushed him.

Firefighters responded at 2:11 p.m. and were able to pull the man to safety with the aid of his fellow workers. Dirt had buried him above his head, an FDNY spokesman said. “He had a pulse, but his body had a blue complexion,” a fire source said.

Elderly woman dies after mugging

From WPIX:

An 80-year-old woman who was mugged last weekend in Queens has died from her injuries — but not before identifying her attacker, police say.

Police say Celica Londono of 76th Street, Queens, was walking with her 92-year-old sister-in-law around 4:40 p.m. on 76th Street near 35th Avenue when a man identified as 32-year-old Jordan Vecchio cut her purse straps and shoved her to the ground.

Londono suffered injuries to her abdomen, arm and face. Her sister-in-law was not injured, police say.

EMS transported Londono to Elmhurst General Hospital where she died from her injuries on Wednesday.

Doctors handing out food coupons at Elmhurst Hospital

From the Daily News:

Visits to the farmer’s market could soon replace trips to the pharmacy for some patients.

Elmhurst Hospital is the latest city hospital to adopt the Wholesome Wave Fruit and Vegetable Prescription program targeted to overweight or obese children.

Doctors write fruit and vegetable “prescriptions” for their young patients. The writeups are then turned into so-called Health Bucks at certain greenmarkets.

Health and Hospitals Corporation officials said the average prescription translates into $14 of food for a family of four.

Conflicting info about safer or more dangerous streets

I'm going to throw a bunch of links up and allow you to make heads or tails of the data.

Mayor Bloomberg's aggressive traffic policies have caused massive drop in traffic deaths - Daily News. Subheadline: "Widened sidewalks, redesigned intersections and speed zones have brought traffic deaths down by more than 30% since Hizzoner took office."

Could it be that fewer people are dying in car accidents because cars have been made safer for drivers and passengers and not because of Bloomberg or Sadik-Khan? Unless they are talking about pedestrians, which would make the following headline from the same paper more curious:

Elmhurst Hospital doctors say pedestrian injuries are continuing to rise in Queens" - Daily News. Quote: The hospital recorded 296 pedestrian injury cases in 2012, up from 275 the previous year and the highest number in a decade. Figures are not yet available for 2013. The hot spots for accidents in the area — Queens Blvd., Roosevelt Ave. and Northern Blvd. — would come as a surprise to nobody.

Bayside Patch reports that as a whole and compared to other states, NY state drivers are average.

Yet the NY Post reports that DWI deaths in NYC have - get this - doubled since last year. What's the deal with that? We've had DWI education programs in place since the 1980s...

Drunk driving aside, the observant among us have seen pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists all do stupid things and take unnecessary risks, mainly because everyone in this city is in such a damn hurry for some reason.

And then think about the series of really bad choices by various people that led up to this past Friday's tragedy and yesterday's deadly accident in Woodside.

Police have been cracking down on bad motorists lately, but it never seems to be enough.

This is complicated stuff, and no matter how "improved" things appear to be, there is still a lot of bad stuff happening, with plenty of blame to go around.

Translation scam at Elmhurst Hospital

From the Daily News:

A Korean-speaking swindler was busted at a Queens hospital after he reportedly tried to fleece non-English speaking immigrants, hospital officials said.

The man had been repeatedly spotted offering to translate between staff at Elmhurst Hospital Center and Korean speakers for a $240 fee, said hospital spokesman Dario Centorcelli.

Hospitals are mandated to provide interpreter service at no cost and freely advertise that fact, he said.

A night out in Woodside

From the NY Post:

A heated argument over a woman turned bloody when a man was shot after leaving a Queens strip joint, police sources said.

The unidentified 23-year-old victim left Club Perfection NY on 30th Avenue in Woodside after getting into a dispute, police sources said.

An unidentified gunman opened fire and blasted the victim one time in the stomach at 4:30 a.m. on the westbound service road of the BQE and Bulova Avenue, police said. He was critically wounded, police sources said.

An ambulance rushing to transport the victim to a local hospital later slammed into a vehicle on 82nd Street and 34th Avenue, sending two paramedics and two other victims to Elmhurst Hospital with serious injuries, police said.

Fight at Goldfingers ends in death

From the Queens Gazette:

A drunken strip club patron was beaten to death on January 30 after he was ejected from the club for his drunken behavior, police said. A club bouncer tossed Sammy Dejesus, 28, out of Goldfinger’s at about 11:15 p.m. on January 30. Dejesus was found unconscious by police responding to a 911 call about a beating near the club.

Dejesus, of Middle Village, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he died of his injuries on February 2.

Police arrested Alex Rodriguez, 27, on February 2 and charged him with manslaughter and assault in Dejesus’ death. Police sources said eyewitnesses told investigators Rodriguez and Dejesus got into a verbal dispute that led to the beating.

Sources said investigators are trying to determine what led to the dispute between the two men.

Pizza man assaulted in Jackson Heights

From the Daily News:

A pizza deliveryman was fighting for his life after he was set up for a robbery in Queens early Friday and hit so hard in the skull with a baseball bat that the thud was heard six floors above, police sources said.

Victor Mejia de los Santos, a 28-year-old Mexican immigrant, never had a chance, police said.

He was attacked from behind by Jorge Paret, 28, and Anardo Battista, 23, about 12:05 a.m. Friday on 75th St. near 34th Ave. in Jackson Heights, after showing up with a pizza the suspects had ordered as a ruse, sources said.

Paret cracked de los Santos over the head, fracturing his skull, then he and his accomplice pummeled the helpless man, kicking and punching him before fleeing with the scooter he used to make his deliveries, sources said.

The suspects were nabbed shortly after the attack, and police recovered the scooter and three mountain bikes that also apparently had been stolen. Each suspect blamed the other, sources said.

De los Santos underwent emergency brain surgery and is in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital Center, where his wife, Candelaria Rodriguez, 22, and other relatives held vigil Friday night.

Doctors have told the family half of de los Santos' body could remain paralyzed.

De los Santos bought the electric scooter six months ago to make more money delivering, his uncle Mayolo Rodriguez told The Daily News.

Family said de los Santos worked at the pizza store since arriving in the U.S.

"He liked to work a lot. He didn't get drunk, nothing like that," said his uncle. "He said it was a nice place, he liked to work there."

Halloran foe tickets woman changing tire

From CBS 2:

The traffic agent accused of terrorizing Queens residents is the source of more outrage.

CBS 2 first told you about Agent Daniel Chu, who was ordered to undergo sensitivity training for badgering drivers. Now, there's a new complaint that has some calling for his job.

There are some things you just can't change, and too-big-for-his-britches Traffic Agent Daniel Chu appears to be one of them.

"I'm very angry. I'm very annoyed that someone like that works for the city, that our tax dollars pay for someone like that to be employed," Tammy Fox, of New Rochelle, said.

Tammy Fox is Agent Chu's latest victim. She was in the dirt near Elmhurst Hospital, trying to fix her flat tire, when Agent Chu sauntered up. Instead of offering help, like most New Yorkers would, he slapped her with a ticket.

"I said to him, 'are you kidding me? You're very insensitive. I'm going to visit my friend in the hospital who had cancer, and I'm trying to fix my flat tire, and you're standing here writing me a ticket?'" Fox said.

Tammy hit the nail on the head when she used the word insensitive. The very day she got the ticket, CBS 2 told you that NYPD brass docked Chu's pay and ordered him into sensitivity training for a raft of run-ins with the public and Queens Councilman Daniel Halloran.

"Apparently, the sensitivity training didn't work," Councilman Halloran said.

What's so strange about this?

Man apprehended near cemetery with skull in bag: Police
By Rebecca Henely, Times Ledger

Police responded to a 911 call for an emotionally disturbed person near Cypress Hill cemetery Thursday and found him carrying a skull in a bag, said a spokesperson for the NYPD.

The spokesperson said that at 10:44 a.m. Thursday a Hispanic male, 37, called 911 saying he was planning to kill himself.

Officers from the 104th Precinct responded to the scene in Highland Park, adjacent to the intersection of Cypress Hills Street and the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Ridgewood. When they met the man, they found he was carrying a skull in a white bag, police said.

The skull appeared to be a number of years old and the case was not an open homicide, police said. The skull was being examined by the medical examiner’s office, police said Friday.

The man was removed to Elmhurst Hospital for examination, police said.

3-alarm fire in Astoria

From Eyewitness News:

Firefighters battled heat exhaustion and dehydration as they fought the flames in Queens today.

"This is about the worst conditions firefighters will face," one firefighter said.

A routine apartment fire in Astoria became an exercise in exhaustion as firefighters laden down with gear struggled to keep cool.

"The gear is very heavy. It keeps the heat in, so the operational time of our firefighters is reduced significantly,"

The Fire Department says it took nearly an hour and a half to get the fire under control. It spread among a group of two-story buildings sharing a roof. No civilians were injured.

The fire department rolled out extra resources, like a massive fan to blow refreshing mist at weary rescuers. Still, 18 of them needed treatment for heat exhaustion.

The firefighters were brought to Elmhurst Hospital Center for treatment.

DWI holiday weekend

From the Daily News:

Two men were in critical condition after a horrific wrong-way crash early Monday on the Long Island Expressway in Queens, police said.

Both vehicles exploded into flames following the 6 a.m. crash, when a silver Mercedes-Benz driven in the wrong direction by a hammered 30-year-old man slammed into an airport shuttle near the Utopia Parkway exit, police said.

The Bronx man had a sky-high blood-alcohol level of 1.9 - more than twice the legal limit, police sources said.

The driver, whose name has not been made public, was charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment and driving with a suspended license.

The Super Shuttle van, with a 64-year-old Long Island man at the wheel, carried no passengers.

Both drivers were pulled from the flaming wreckage and taken to New York Hospital Queens in Flushing with life-threatening injuries.

The crash closed eastbound lanes of the LIE in the area for hours.

From the NY Post:

The holiday-weekend horror unfolded on Corona Avenue in Elmhurst just before 7:30 p.m. when the two friends, 47 and 22, were removing items from their minivan.

"All of a sudden, this blue van came out of nowhere and it looked like he tried to swerve and he hit the two ladies," said Danny Rodriguez, 21. "They flew high in the air, at least seven feet."

The van's driver did not stop right away, Rodriguez said.

"It looked like he tried to park the car 100 feet away, but then he kept driving down Corona."

Several bystanders chased after the van to get him to stop, the witness said.

The 49-year-old driver was expected to be charged with driving while intoxicated and vehicular assault, the sources said.

The two women were rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in extremely critical condition.

A guy was shot in the head and killed in Howard Beach, too.

Charge upgraded to murder in Flushing attack

From the NY Post:

“I want to kill that man! I want my daughter back!”

A devastated mother screamed those words again and again after she looked for the first time at the man accused of raping and beating her daughter to death with a pipe in Flushing.

Guihua Yu, 55, a petite woman with a heart condition, had to be restrained by half a dozen men when she lunged at Carlos Salazar Cruz, 28, in Queens Criminal Court [Monday].

Cruz allegedly raped Yu Yau, 23, and then beat her with a pipe, leaving her brain dead last month. She died nearly a week later, on May 21.

Yau had arrived in Queens from China two months ago with dreams of becoming a lawyer, and had been staying with her uncle in Flushing.

Yau's woman's mother flew in from China last week to identify her body. The mother then fainted, hit her head and was treated at Elmhurst Hospital.

“She only found out her daughter was dead when she arrived here last week,” said State Assemblywoman Grace Meng, who has been helping Yau's family and who accompanied the mother to court yesterday.

“[Yu] told the DA, 'I want to make sure (Cruz) is sentenced, and to return justice to my daughter. I don't want my daughter to die for nothing.'”

Handcuffed and wearing jeans and a brown T shirt, Cruz listened silently as prosecutors bumped up his charges from attempted murder to murder.

82-year old man's assaulter turns himself in

From Eyewitness News:

The incident happened back on Friday February 12, 2010 at 10:15 p.m.

Sonnino Paliotta of Forest Hills said he hired the suspect, 49-year-old Jamie Olivera, to do some construction work in his bathroom. He needed the walls taken down for retiling. When that work was done, Paliotta said Garcia suggested that he do the tiling work.

Paliotta agreed and paid him $500 up front for a $2500 job. Several weeks went by and when Garcia was unable to start the work because he couldn't get a machine that he needed, he refunded the money and the two went their separate ways.

A couple of months later, Garcia came back and told Paliotta that his father died in Chicago and he needed to borrow $200. Paliotta said he trusted Garcia and gave him the money. He was promised that it would be refunded that next week.

When Garcia returned, Paliotta said he claimed that his father left him $12 million and he would refund him the money when he got it in May. He offered to do something for the victim in the meantime.

Paliotta asked that Garcia give his niece's husband a job because he hadn't worked in a while. He was also the same person who originally introduced the two men. Garcia agreed, and as they were walking to the door, Paliotta said Garcia flipped out and hit him in the head with a hammer.

Paliotta was struck twice more during the assault. He was transported to Elmhurst Hospital, where he received 26 stitches to his head.

From the NY Post:

Cops busted a thug wanted for brutally beating an elderly Forest Hills man with a hammer, authorities said last night.

The suspect finally turned himself in after friends and relatives persuaded him to surrender.

No more prisoners at Elmhurst Hospital

From the Queens Tribune:

The Astoria Child Heath Clinic, at 12-36 31st Ave. in Long Island City, served 1,167 patients in the last fiscal year. This is one of six clinics citywide to be shut down, including four in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx.

With all the changes happening citywide with HHC, perhaps the best news for Queens is that inmates from Rikers Island who need urgent medical care will no longer be transported to Elmhurst Hospital. Currently, inmates get split between Elmhurst Hospital and Bellevue Hospital. Under the new plan, all inmates would now travel to a separate facility. HHC will use the space freed up at Elmhurst and Bellevue to add to its revenue-generating capacity.