Inside Bellevue

A young publishing executive who had been on the skids. Glen Hilken was unconscious when he landed in Bellevue Hospital. Doctors diagnosed possible tuberculosis, so he was confined to an isolation area, and there, the ordeal began. In Hilken's twelve-bed ward, one patient got a kick from turning other patients respirators on and off, among other torments. The bombshell came when Hilken was informed the spot on his lung was actually a tumor, and his rib cage would have to be completely opened for a chance of removing it. Inside Bellevue is the true story of the alternative left to patients of limited or exhausted finances. Hilken, devoid of personal property, $17,000 in debt, and strung out on pain killers and scotch, had no choice but Bellevue for treatment. His plight has been that of thousands who have endured feces in hospital hallways and rats in surgical wards, all in the name of charity health service.