Steven Sabock: an unimportant man who died at Cherry State Hospital, unfed and unattended to

From California poet/ existential psychologist, Tom Greening, PhD. He has a new book of poems.


Words Against the Void : Poems by an Existential Psychologist

By: Tom Greening
***************************************************************************

Steven Sabock

Steven Sabock,
age 50 and not a happy man,
sat in his chair unfed for 22 hours
at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, North Carolina,
choked on his medication
and died.
A few feet away
the staff watched TV and played cards.
It was not reported what programs they watched
or who won at cards,
but maybe that was not important,
and neither was Mr. Sabock.

Tom Greening
********************************************************
heads rolling.....I'm knitting....

Ward where mental patient died closes at Cherry Hospital


Posted: Aug. 22, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. — The ward on which a patient died after he was left unattended for nearly a day is closed, and the 16 Cherry Hospital staff members on duty during that time have been disciplined, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dempsey Benton said Friday.

Closing the ward at the Goldsboro facility reduces adult admissions from 90 to 67 beds and reduces Cherry Hospital's overall bed capacity from 274 to 251, but allows the hospital to have two registered nurses on the remaining three wards for each shift, which is now standard, Benton said.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3419482/