To view our videos, you need to:
1. Enable JavaScript. Learn how.
2. Install Adobe Flash. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

"She was a giver, had a tough life, a very tough life," said NY1 employee Monica Omoarukhe, daughter of the deceased.

Distraught family members say Carolyn Fraiser Atta, a mother of four daughters, arrived at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn at 3 p.m. Tuesday complaining of shortness of breath; was admitted; and given a nebulizer used to treat asthma.

They say she then was not seen by a doctor or nurse until seven hours later, around 10 p.m. Two hours after that, Frasier Atta was dead.

"They robbed us of a mother; they robbed us of a sister; they robbed us of a friend, an aunt," said Atta's daughter, Ashley Omoarukhe.

Her older brother, Melvin Fraiser says he had tried repeatedly to get a doctor to see his sister.

"She didn't an IV. She didn't have anything. No oxygen tank or anything," said Frasier. "She was just laying on the bed waiting to see a doctor."

One of her daughter's, an EMT, says her mother should have been seen by a doctor immediately because she had shortness of breath.

"If vital signs were done, even just auscultation, the nurses would have detected fluid in the lungs," said Ashley Omoarukhe.

Fraiser says his sister was talking and coherent when he left the hospital around 7 p.m. The family phone rang after midnight.

"They called my sister Ashley at 12:25 in the morning. She was home alone and told her over the phone. They did not know if she was a child or a minor," said Monica Omoarukhe. "They didn't ask her, they didn't know if she was an elderly person. They called her said 'Is this, who you are? You're the daughter? Your mother went under cardiac arrest she did not make it.'"

When they arrived at the hospital, the family says a nurse took them aside and advised them to get counsel.

"A nurse said, 'you know what, between us, and I don't want to put this on record, you need to get a lawyer. You're mom should not have been sitting there not able to breath and not been attended to,'" said Monica Omoarukhe.

NY1 called the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which Woodhull is part of, for a comment.

In a statement HHC told said, "We are saddened by the death of Ms. Atta and have extended our sympathy and condolences to the patient's family. While patient confidentiality laws preclude us from disclosing her medical history or details about the services she received, we can confirm that she was seen and assessed by clinical staff several times while she was in the emergency room. The hospital will conduct a thorough review of the case to ensure she received the appropriate care and will continue to communicate directly with the family as needed."

The family has retained counsel but say nothing can lessen the pain of their loss.

"That was my heart there," said the deceased's brother. "My sister was my real heart."

The family has requested that the medical examiner's office conduct an autopsy and hopes to get the results sometime today.

If you'd like "NY1 For You" to look into a problem, call our 24-hour helpline at 212-379-3599 or send an email to ny1foryou@ny1.com.