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Family Blames Tampa General Hospital For Suicide

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2008

TAMPA - The family of a 44-year-old woman who committed suicide while under psychiatric care at Tampa General Hospital blames the hospital for inadequate supervision, a lawyer said Wednesday.

The woman died July 21 after hanging herself with a bedsheet on a closet door between 15-minute security checks, according to police. Two days later, a 28-year-old man who was a patient in the psychiatric ward hanged himself in the same manner, police said.

"This never should've happened," said Mike Trentalange, the woman's mother's Tampa-based attorney. "It happened twice in 48 hours. This is not an isolated event."

The hospital released a statement Monday saying the hospital was "confident" in its safety protocols and procedures but was "reviewing them to determine if there are other steps or policies that can be implemented that go beyond the existing standards to better detect, prevent or deter these types of events in the future."

That review indicates the supervision was inadequate, Trentalange said. He was skeptical that the woman was checked every 15 minutes, as stated in the police report.

"I find it absolutely impossible that an inpatient at a psychiatric facility could fashion a noose out of a bedsheet within 15 minutes," Trentalange said.

"If there's a person sitting in her room, she wouldn't be able to hang herself," he said.

Hospital spokesman John Dunn declined to comment on the situation Wednesday. On Monday, Dunn said the suicides were reported to the state's Agency for Health Care Administration and federal health care agencies.

Trentalange said he hoped scrutiny from the state and federal level would prompt changes at the hospital. He stopped short of saying his client plans to sue the hospital.

"She wants to make sure that nothing like this happens again, and that she comes to a clear understanding about what happened," he said.

Trentalange pointed out that the suicide or attempted suicide of a patient under the care of a healthcare facility is considered a "never event" by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A "never event" is an error in medical care that indicates a problem in a facility's safety and credibility, the federal agency says. Other "never events" include surgery performed on the wrong body part or the wrong patient, an infant being discharged to the wrong patient, and a patient being assaulted while on facility property.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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