Tape shows progress of a death

Video shows records at Cherry Hospital were falsified in the death of a patient who sat, largely ignored, with no food, for 22 hours

RALEIGH -- Security camera footage proves state mental hospital employees falsified records to cover up negligence in the death of a patient who choked on his medication, hit his head and then was left sitting in a chair for nearly a day without food or water.

Steven H. Sabock, 50, who had lived in Roanoke Rapids, died April 29 at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro. An investigation into his death spurred regulators to pull the state facility's federal funding in September, costing North Carolina taxpayers millions.

The video released Tuesday shows employees playing cards, watching television and goofing off as Sabock sat ailing and dazed a few feet away, his clothes soaked with his urine.

Though the footage was described in an August investigative report, the recordings were not made public until The News & Observer and other media outlets worked with Sabock's widow to force their release.

The visual record of Sabock's last day shows that at least 16 staff members responsible for his care over four work shifts failed to recognize that he was in distress until it was too late.

The state's internal review, released to The N&O in the last week, says employees lied to investigators and falsified Sabock's medical records to show that they had provided him care that the video proves they did not.

An autopsy would later conclude that Sabock, who had bipolar disorder, died of a heart condition. But records show the medical examiner was provided false information about the patient's condition in his final hours, including fabricated measurements of his vital signs. The hospital's report of the death also omits any mention of his choking or falling.

Requests for interviews with Cherry Hospital Director Jack St. Clair and Nursing Director Bonnie Gray, who prepared the report to the medical examiner, were declined.

Tom Lawrence, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said there would be no response Tuesday to questions submitted earlier by phone and e-mail.

Dr. John Butts, the state's chief medical examiner, said Tuesday he doubted that having access to the video or internal investigative report would have changed his office's conclusion that Sabock died of natural causes related to heart problems. The autopsy report shows no evidence of head trauma, he said.

Started with a fall

Sabock's ordeal began April 28, when shortly after 8 p.m. he went to a room where he took his evening medication. The tape shows him starting to choke on the pills, with health care technician Lucretia Houston patting him on the back. He then falls, his head bouncing off the floor.

As Sabock turns purple while he's on his back, Houston thrusts on his abdomen with her hands in an attempt to help him breathe. She then quickly pulls him up off the floor, without checking to see whether he was injured by the fall, which the report notes is a violation of the hospital's emergency procedures. A nurse, Susan Watson, stands by and does little to help.

Watson later told investigators she "freaked out" when Sabock choked and fell.

"I just stood there and froze is what I did," Watson is quoted as saying in the investigative report.

Sabock was guided back to the day room on his ward and deposited in a chair. Nearly two hours passed before he was taken to a nurses' station to be checked out by a physician assistant. She ordered the staff to take Sabock's vital signs every six hours to ensure that he was OK.

The patient was returned to the chair in the day room at 10:22 p.m., where Houston took his vital signs. While doing so, she can be seen dancing and joking with employees.