Another Patient Commits Suicide at Mental Hospital
Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 in News Stories
Marc Biron was a 50-year-old patient at Patton State Hospital. On January 4, early morning, he woke up and went into the bathroom. After coming back out, he promptly went into his wardrobe and hung himself. That’s where hospital staff found his body later that morning.
Related Case Studies
During your doctor’s visit, you notice a bulge under the lab coat of your doctor. After some careful observation, you realize it’s a gun! Well, this could have been your experience if you had been a patient of Dr. Rambo…
The caveat is that Patton State Hospital is not a typical hospital. It’s a mental facility, and Biron was being treated there as a psychiatric patient. He was described as generally well-humored, cooperative, and even played in the hospital’s band as its guitarist. There were no signs of him being suicidal. In fact, the hospital has been doing everything it could to decrease suicides, especially by hanging.
About 4 years ago, Patton was cited by federal attorneys as having a “high number of suicide attempts by hanging” because it failed to prevent future incidents. A consent judgment in 2006, which included Patton and 3 other California state hospitals, mandated a series of changes on the hospital to better take care of its patients. Brion’s suicide was the third at Patton since the changes were imposed and the ninth amongst the 4 hospitals. Patton’s last suicide was about a year ago when Augie Solez hanged himself on the door hinge with his bedsheets. Those door hinges have been changed in response, but the staff is still working on the wardrobes.
In other news regarding hospitals under judgment, remember Kings County Hospital in New York? A Jamaican woman died in its psychiatric unit in July two years ago. While waiting more than 24 hours to be treated, she collapsed and died on the floor from blood clots. The heads of the psychiatric department were all fired, the staff went through retraining, and earlier this week we found out that the court will be monitoring the hospital for 5 years with mandated reforms. Hopefully nothing like that will happen again.
Donald
Jan 19th, 2010
Hah, wondered what happened to that hospital in NY. Good to know heads rolled.
What_The_Heck
Jan 19th, 2010
Very true Donald. That story about the woman dying in the waiting room was appalling. As to the suicides in other hospitals, I’m glad they are stepping up and working hard to stop such things. I hope they succeed.