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Suicide Malpractice

No suicide malpractice claim has justification in science, nor in law, nor in public policy.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Excessive Taxation a Factor in a Mayor's Suicide

The stress of the hounding of lawyers seemed worse than death to this unfortunate taxpayer.

The mayor of Springfield, Illinois, Tim Davlin, was found dead Tuesday morning from what apparently was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the State-Journal Register.

Illinois State Police are investigating his death.

Police Chief Robert Williams says officers responded to a 911 call shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday at Timothy Davlin's home and found the Democratic mayor dead.

Williams declines to offer details about how Davlin died, saying the investigation is in its infancy.

Springfield Alderman Frank Kunz, who will take over mayoral duties, tells the paper he is shocked and that "it's a sad day."

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin released a statement saying he was shocked by the news of Davlin's death.

"I was stunned and saddened by the news of Mayor Tim Davlin's passing. His work with my office always reflected his dedication to our hometown. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this tragic moment."

Mayor Davlin did not show up for a court ordered appearance Tuesday morning in a pending estate case involving his late cousin.

Records show that Mayor Davlin owes the federal government nearly $90,000 in unpaid income taxes and liens have been filed against his home.

The lien notice filed in the Sangamon County recorder’s office shows Davlin owes income taxes for the years 2003, 2005 and 2006.

The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reports that the mayor blames the problem on a dispute with the IRS over taxes owed on investments he cashed in to buy the home.

Sangamon County property records show that Davlin bought the home for $237,500 in 2004.

City payroll records from earlier this year show that Davlin earns more than $119,000 a year.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/14/report-mayor-springfield-illnois-commits-suicide/#ixzz188wqEy7e
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 9:23 PM No comments:
Labels: Risk Factors

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Scapegoating of Suicide of Member of Lawyer Privileged Group, Homosexuals

Homosexuality eliminates the single, true purpose of life, reproduction. Thus, people with it are depressed, and tend to commit suicide more often than those without it. Now, one suicides, and others are being scapegoated.

Update: NYT article . If homosexuality is supposed to be normal, and not a disorder, then it is puzzling that a person would be upset by any exposure. The defendants have not expressed any hostility toward homosexuals. There is one person who expressed an extreme form of hostility to homosexuality, the suicider. He found exposure so intolerable, he had to kill himself.

Bullying, Suicide, Punishment

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: October 2, 2010
TYLER CLEMENTI may have died from exposure in cyberspace. His roommate and another student, according to police, viewed Mr. Clementi’s intimate encounter with another man on a Webcam and streamed it onto the Internet. Mr. Clementi, an 18-year-old violinist in his freshman year at Rutgers University, jumped off of the George Washington Bridge, and now the two face serious criminal charges, including invasion of privacy.
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Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Tyler Clementi, Rutgers freshman

Related

  • Legal Debate Swirls Over Charges in a Student’s Suicide (October 2, 2010)
  • Before a Suicide, Hints in Online Musings (October 1, 2010)
  • Private Moment Made Public, Then a Fatal Jump (September 30, 2010)

The prosecutor in the case has also said that he will investigate bringing bias charges, based on Mr. Clementi’s sexual orientation, which could raise the punishment to 10 years in prison from 5.

But the case has stirred passionate anger, and many have called for tougher charges, like manslaughter — just as outrage led to similar calls against the six students accused of bullying Phoebe Prince, a student in South Hadley, Mass., who also committed suicide earlier this year.

What should the punishment be for acts like cyberbullying and online humiliation?

That question is as difficult to answer as how to integrate our values with all the things in our lives made of bits, balancing a right to privacy with the urge to text, tweet, stream and post.

And the outcry over proper punishment is also part of the continuing debate about how to handle personal responsibility and freedom. Just how culpable is an online bully in someone’s decision to end a life?

It is not the first time cruel acts and online distribution have combined tragically. In 2008, Jessica Logan, 18, hung herself after an ex-boyfriend circulated the nude cellphone snapshots she had “sexted” to him.

Public humiliation and sexual orientation can be an especially deadly blend. In recent weeks, several students have committed suicide after instances that have been described as cyberbullying over sexual orientation, including Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old in Tehachapi, Calif., who hanged himself from a tree in his backyard last month and died after more than a week on life support.

A survey of more than 5,000 college students, faculty members and staff members who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender published last month by the advocacy group Campus Pride found that nearly one in four reported harassment, almost all related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Warren J. Blumenfeld, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Iowa State University and an author of the Campus Pride study, also conducted a smaller survey of 350 nonheterosexual students between the ages of 11 and 22 and found that about half of the respondents reported being cyberbullied in the 30 days before the survey, and that more than a quarter had suicidal thoughts.

“Those students who are face-to-face bullied, and/or cyberbullied, face increased risk for depression, PTSD, and suicidal attempts and ideation,” Professor Blumenfeld said.

But punishment for people who do such a thing is still up for debate. In the Rutgers case, New Jersey prosecutors initially charged the two students, Dharum Ravi and Molly W. Wei, with two counts each of invasion of privacy for using the camera on Sept. 19. Mr. Ravi faces two additional counts for a second, unsuccessful attempt to view and transmit another image of Mr. Clementi two days later.

If Mr. Ravi’s actions constituted a bias crime, that could raise the charges from third-degree invasion of privacy to second degree, and double the possible punishment to 10 years.

Still, for all the talk of cyberbullying, the state statute regarding that particular crime seems ill suited to Mr. Clementi’s suicide.

Like most states with a cyberbullying statute, New Jersey’s focuses on primary and high school education, found in the part of the legal code devoted to education, not criminal acts. The privacy law in this case is used more often in high-tech peeping Tom cases involving hidden cameras in dressing rooms and bathrooms. State Senator Barbara Buono sponsored both pieces of legislation, and said the law had to adapt to new technologies. “No law is perfect,” she said. “No law can deter every and any instance of this kind of behavior. We’re going to try to do a better job.”

Still, the punishment must fit the crime, not the sense of outrage over it. While some have called for manslaughter charges in the Rutgers case, those are difficult to make stick. Reaching a guilty verdict would require that the suicide be viewed by a jury as foreseeable — a high hurdle in an age when most children report some degree of bullying.

Besides, finding the toughest possible charges isn’t the way the law is supposed to work, said Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University who specializes in cybercrime. “There’s an understandable wish by prosecutors to respond to the moral outrage of society,” he said, “but the important thing is for the prosecution to follow the law.”

The fact that a case of bullying ends in suicide should not bend the judgment of prosecutors, he said. Society should be concerned, he said, when it appears that the government is “prosecuting people not for what they did, but for what the victim did in response.”

Finding the right level of prosecution, then, can be a challenge. On the one hand, he said, “it’s college — everybody is playing pranks on everybody else.” On the other, “invading somebody’s privacy can inflict such great distress that invasions of privacy should be punished, and punished significantly.”

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 11:44 PM No comments:
Labels: Homosexuality

Friday, September 24, 2010

Suicider Leaves Long Note

The note is here. Despairs of the evil of America as people in Cambridge do.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 9:28 PM No comments:
Labels: Note

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Another Suicider Kills Family First

Here.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 11:16 PM No comments:
Labels: Mass Murder

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Altitude an Independenat Risk Factor for Suicide

Add this risk factor to the expert review list. From the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Altitude, Gun Ownership, Rural Areas, and Suicide

Namkug Kim, Ph.D., Jennie B. Mickelson, B.S., Barry E. Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., Charlotte A. Haws, B.S., Deborah A. Yurgelun-Todd, Ph.D., and Perry F. Renshaw, M.D., Ph.D.

From the Brain Institute of the University of Utah; VISN 19 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Health Care System; and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

Objective: The authors recently observed a correlation between state altitude and suicide rate in the United States, which could be explained by higher rates of gun ownership and lower population density in the intermountain West. The present study evaluated the relationship between mean county and state altitude in the United States and total age-adjusted suicide rates, firearm-related suicide rates, and non-firearm-related suicide rates. The authors hypothesized that altitude would be significantly associated with suicide rate. Method: Elevation data were calculated with an approximate spatial resolution of 0.5 km, using zonal statistics on data sets compiled from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Suicide and population density data were obtained through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER database. Gun ownership data were obtained through the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Results: A significant positive correlation was observed between age-adjusted suicide rate and county elevation (r=0.51). Firearm (r=0.41) and non-firearm suicide rates (r=0.32) were also positively correlated with mean county elevation. Conclusions: When altitude, gun ownership, and population density are considered as predictor variables for suicide rates on a state basis, altitude appears to be a significant independent risk factor. This association may be related to the effects of metabolic stress associated with mild hypoxia in individuals with mood disorders.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 5:51 PM No comments:
Labels: Risk Factors

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Suicider Mass Murderer

Now he qualifies for an involuntary commitment. Thank the lawyer for this tragedy, including the needless death of the suicider.

Husband enraged over how his wife cooked his breakfast eggs kills her and four others in Kentucky shotgun rampage

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 7:15 PM on 12th September 2010

A man facing eviction over his terrible temper became so enraged by how his wife cooked his eggs that he killed her, his stepdaughter and three neighbours with a shotgun before turning the weapon on himself.

Dressed in his pyjamas, Stanley Neace, 47, went on the killing spree in a trailer park in Jackson, eastern Kentucky. The massacre happened at around 11.30am local time.

Neighbours in the roadside trailer park said Neace stormed across the lawns of several homes and fired dozens of shots from a 12-gauge pump shotgun.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 4:16 PM No comments:
Labels: Mass Murder

Friday, September 3, 2010

Hospital Cleared of Malpractice After Discharged Patient Commits Suicide

1) Early discharge encouraged by involuntary commitment act.

2) Psychiatrist cannot held responsible for unpredictable patient behavior.

3) Patient had follow up care set up.

Hospital cleared in patient’s suicide
September 01, 2010, 01:43 AM By Michelle Durand Daily Journal Staff

San Mateo Medical Center is not responsible for a suicidal patient who killed herself after being discharged before the end of a 72-hour psychiatric hold, according to a state appellate court who upheld a previous ruling that the treating psychiatrist believed she no longer required care.

The decision filed Aug. 30 holds that Dr. Mina Bak not only discharged Katherine Farley early because of her belief the woman would not harm herself but provided her referrals to other agencies for follow-up help.

Farley was brought to the hospital at approximately 7:15 p.m. June 23, 2006 in an intoxicated state and voicing suicidal thoughts, according to court records.

The emergency room doctor admitted her to the psychiatric ward where her medical history, including past suicide attempts, depression and alcohol abuse, were assessed. The following morning, she told Bak she was still depressed but denied any specific suicidal plan and said she would never harm herself because she was “too chicken” and had a young son. Bak discharged Farley at 2:40 p.m. June 24 and, at approximately 6 p.m. June 26, she committed suicide.

The following August, Farley’s husband, Dave Monroe, and their son sued for medical malpractice, arguing the hospital staff failed to note the “seriousness of her condition and the danger she posed to herself,” did not give necessary care while she was still experiencing a psychiatric emergency and released her too early without instructions for treatment. The suit also alleged Farley was released early because of her inability to pay for medical services and economic status.

In August 2008, the trial court agreed with the hospital that it was immune from liability.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 6:41 AM No comments:
Labels: Verdict

Why Do Drug Compaaies and Researchers Neglect Suicide?

They are afraid of litigation. The lawsuit the lawyer claims is to prevent suicide in others prevents any advances in the prevention of suicide. Thank the lawyer for lack of progress in suicide prevention. Any jury awarding any verdict in a suicide claim must also be held responsible for this stagnation.

"

Health

The Forgotten Patients

Robert Langreth and Rebecca Ruiz, 08.26.10, 11:20 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated September 13, 2010

The mental health industry ignores the 35,000 people a year who commit suicide. A few researchers are trying to change that.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 6:34 AM No comments:
Labels: Lethal Lawyer Rent Seeking

Cyberbullying Suicider Had Ordinary Mental Health Problems

As usual, the self-dealing prosecutor compound the tragedy with their own publicity seeking agenda. These prosecutors should be prosecuted themselves. And I hope they are after the case is over.

"In January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince killed herself after being bullied at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. Six students have been criminally charged in connection with her death; their cases go to court in September. Last month, I wrote a long article explaining why the story of Phoebe's death is more complicated than the narrative that had taken hold in the media—that Phoebe had been tortured for months by a pack of mean girls. I argued that the serious and unusual felony charges brought against the six teens represent prosecutorial overreach, given that Phoebe had mental health troubles before the bullying began, that she was caught up in conflicts that other South Hadley kids saw as "normal girl drama," and that the bullying, while wrong, was not the "relentless" three-month campaign the district attorney described."
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 6:09 AM No comments:
Labels: Bullying

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Top Model Suicide

Nick Pisa

Police are investigating the death of a top male model found dead just hours ahead of the start of Milan Men's Fashion Week.

Catwalk star Tom Nicon, 22, died instantly after falling four floors from an apartment window in the centre of the Italian fashion capital.

French model Nicon worked for Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Hugo Boss and had just returned from a Versace rehearsal before he was found dead.

Tom Nicon
Tom Nicon

'Suicide': Tom Nicon had recently split from his girlfriend, a police source said

Police in Milan said today they were treating the death as suicide and investigating suggestions he had suffered from a ''complicated affair of love.''

A police source in Milan said: 'We have spoken to the friends he was staying with and they have told us that he had recently broken up with his girlfriend and was depressed.''

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 9:55 AM No comments:
Labels: Risk Factors

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Factory Conditions Generate Many Suicides

"The massive Foxconn factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen is known for assembling famous electronic goods like Apple's iPhone and iPad. But in recent months it has gained a darker image, as a place where distraught workers regularly throw themselves to their deaths. The latest fatality came on Tuesday morning, when a 19-year-old employee died in a fall in the company's Shenzhen compound, according to the state-run Xinhua news service. He was the ninth worker this year to have died in a fall from factory buildings on Foxconn's properties in Shenzhen; two have survived suicide attempts, according to state-media reports. Another teenager, who the company revealed this month died after jumping from a company building in Hebei province in January, brings the total employee death toll from falls to 10 this year.

The string of deaths has drawn attention to the labor practices of a highly successful Fortune 500 company that has 420,000 workers on its payroll in Shenzhen alone. Two dozen activists protested outside the company's Hong Kong offices on Tuesday, calling on Foxconn to improve working conditions and raise wages. The Taiwan-owned company, which is an arm of the Hon Hai Group, has defended the treatment of its workers. "A lot of things cannot be said at this point, but we are quietly doing our job," CEO Terry Gou told a business forum on Monday. With over 900,000 employees globally in the Hon Hai Group, Gou acknowledged the difficulties of employee management. "But," he said, "we are confident we will get things under control shortly." (See portraits of Chinese workers.)"

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 11:52 PM No comments:
Labels: Risk Factors

Monday, May 17, 2010

Suicide After Investigation of Inoffensive Un-PC Remark

I would like the PC snitch, the supervisor and any corporate counsel fired for causing this suicide. They must be sued afterward.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 12:05 AM No comments:
Labels: PC

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Compensation for Suicide Spreads to Great Britain

The family of a psychiatric patient who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train has won £10,000 compensation from the NHS Trust on the grounds that it failed to protect her.

Carol Savage, 50, died in July 2004 after she absconded from Runwell Hospital in Essex and walked two miles to Wickford station.

Mrs Savage’s daughter, Anna, started legal proceedings, seeking a declaration and damages under the Human Rights Act, on the basis that South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust had violated her mother’s right to life under Article 2 of the European Convention.

In a landmark judgment yesterday Mr Justice Mackay, at the High Court in London, ruled in her favour and said that Miss Savage was herself a victim under the Act.

Related Links

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He said: “The defendant Trust ought to have known of the relevant risk and ought to have taken precautions which would substantially have increased the chances of this tragedy being avoided.”

He refused the Trust, which had fought the case all the way to the Law Lords on a preliminary argument, permission to appeal, although it can apply to the Court of Appeal directly.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 6:12 AM No comments:
Labels: Family

Monday, April 26, 2010

Suicides Will Stop. That's an Order

It's not touchy feely stuff, General. It is not losing an asset into which you have poured massive taxpayer investment. It is about getting treated for clear disorder, some of which may have been caused by military service. It is about competing with the Air Force for history's best suicide reduction program.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- Thousands of soldiers, their bald eagle shoulder patches lined up row upon row across the grassy field, stood at rigid attention to hear a stern message from their commander.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend addressed the 101st Airborne Division with military brusqueness: Suicides at the post had spiked after soldiers started returning home from war, and this was unacceptable.

"It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our Army and our country and it's got to stop now," he insisted. "Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now."

It sounded like a typical, military response to a complicated and tragic situation. Authorities believe that 21 soldiers from Fort Campbell killed themselves in 2009, the same year that the Army reported 160 potential suicides, the most since 1980, when it started recording those deaths.

But Townsend's martial response is not the only one. Behind the scenes, there has been a concerted effort at Fort Campbell over the past year to change the hard-charging military mindset to show no weakness, complete the mission.

There are Army doctors like Tangeneare Singh, reaching out to soldiers struggling silently from depression, trauma-related stress and other mental illnesses. There are staffers like Daina Cole, who tracks data collected from Fort Campbell's soldiers, looking for evidence of problems.

And there are platoon sergeants like Robert Groszmann, trained to listen carefully to the soldiers under his command to detect signs of trouble. He knows that the Army must deal with the deadly issues of some of its fighting men and women, though some disdain this "touchy-feely Army stuff."


Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 4:02 AM No comments:
Labels: Prevention

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Rejected Job Applicant Commits Suicide

I suppose one has to add feminism to the list of risk factors. She was bright, personable, had a boyfriend. The following likely never entered her mind.

1) Being a good wife is as important as getting a job.

2) Starting a family is far more important than getting an entry level job.

3) If no one is hiring, employ yourself, and start a business helping or pleasing people.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 11:49 PM No comments:
Labels: Risk Factors

Indictment for Abetting Suicide in a Foreign Country

Suicide is the intentional act of another. The defendant had neither power over the suiciders, nor any duty to them from a professional relationship.

And then again, the scapegoating families. These families had far more power to prevent the suicides by obtaining adequate treatment for their loved ones, than the defendant had to induce the suicide by advice on making knots.

"

Drybrough hanged himself on July 27, 2005. His sister reported going to his home and finding a suicide note, then finding him hanging from a rope tied to a ladder.

Documents say Melchert-Dinkel told investigators he advised Drybrough to use a "slip knot" and place the knot behind his left ear to compress the left and right carotid arteries. Computer evidence showed that Melchert-Dinkel also instructed Drybrough on how to hang himself from a low object.

The victim's mother, Elaine Drybrough, told a British newspaper last month that Melchert-Dinkel "appointed himself Mark's executioner. He whispered in his ear each time he logged on to the computer. Because of his medical experience, he knew exactly ... the buttons he needed to push."

Mark Kajouji, who now serves as an ambassador for Your Life Counts, a national suicide prevention program in Canada, said he can't say for sure whether his sister would still be alive if not for Melchert-Dinkel. But he wonders.

"Obviously, he pushed her to the brink," he said. "He could have been the guy who said, 'Don't do it.' But instead he decided to prey on it.""

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 6:41 PM No comments:
Labels: Methods

Monday, April 19, 2010

Boxing Champ Hangs Self in Jail, Charged with Murder of Wife

The accumulation of risk factors came to an end.

"CARACAS, Venezuela – Former boxing champion Edwin Valero, who had a spectacular career with 27 straight knockouts and flouted a tattoo of President Hugo Chavez on his chest, hanged himself in his jail cell Monday after being arrested for stabbing his wife to death, police said.

The former lightweight champion used the sweat pants he was wearing to hang himself from a bar in the cell, said his lawyer, Milda Mora.

Valero, 28, had problems with alcohol and cocaine addiction and struggled with depression. He had previously been suspected of assaulting his wife and was charged last month with harassing her and threatening personnel at a hospital where she was treated for injuries.

Valero's 24-year-old wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera, was found dead in a hotel room on Sunday, and police said the fighter emerged telling hotel security he had killed her.

Valero was found hanging in his cell early Monday by another inmate, who alerted authorities in the police lockup in north-central Carabobo state, Federal Police Chief Wilmer Flores told reporters. He said Valero still showed signs of life when they took him down, but they were unable to save him.

The former WBA super featherweight and WBC lightweight champion was a household name in Venezuela and had a huge image of Venezuela's president tattooed on his chest along with the country's yellow, blue and red flag.

A man whose fists carried him from poverty in a small town to fame, Valero's all-action style soon earned him a reputation as a tough, explosive crowd-pleaser, and his last victory in Mexico in February over Antonio DeMarco brought his record to 27-0 — all knockouts. Venezuelans called him "Inca," alluding to an Indian warrior, while elsewhere he was called "Dinamita," or dynamite.

Valero had a turbulent disposition and had been in trouble with the law before, for violent incidents and problems with alcohol and drugs.

Last month, he was charged with harassing his wife and threatening medical personnel who treated her at a hospital in the western city of Merida. Police arrested Valero following an argument with a doctor and nurse at the hospital, where his wife was being treated for injuries including a punctured lung and broken ribs.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that Valero was detained March 25 on suspicion of assaulting his wife, but his wife told a police officer her injuries were due to a fall. When the boxer arrived moments later, he forbade Viera from speaking to the police officer and spoke threateningly to the officer, prosecutors said in a statement.

A prosecutor had asked a court to keep Valero in jail, the Attorney General's Office said. But a judge instead allowed him to remain free under certain conditions including that he appear in court every 90 days, said Mora, his lawyer.

Mora told The Associated Press that after the incident Valero was held for nine days in a psychiatric hospital in Merida, where he underwent police-supervised rehabilitation. She said people close to the fighter posted bail on April 7 and he was allowed to go free.

Valero's manager, Jose Castillo, criticized authorities for failing to act more forcefully to prevent the killing.

"I asked the authorities not to let him out. He needed a lot of help. He was very bad in the head," Castillo told reporters. "But they let him out. They were very permissive with him and because of that, we're now in the middle of this tragedy."

Mora, however, said of Valero: "He was the only one responsible."

She said that the Venezuelan government had arranged for the fighter to attend a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Cuba. He had missed a flight to Cuba earlier this month and was scheduled to fly there soon, she said.

The fighter had police escorts who were charged with protecting him. But last week he slipped away from those escorts, leaving his house near Merida with his wife and saying they were headed into town, Mora said.""

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 9:49 PM No comments:
Labels: Celebrities, Jail Suicide, Risk Factors

Friday, April 9, 2010

Slide Show of Celebrity Suicides

This list has the same variety as any compilation of suicide by ordinary people.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 7:53 PM No comments:
Labels: Celebrities

Nancy Grace Deposed in Suicide Case. Has Bad Cold

"Nancy Grace's deposition could make you sick .... if you were sitting in the same room with her.

Grace sat for her deposition in Atlanta today, in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a woman who killed herself after getting grilled by Grace.

We're told Grace had an epic cold and barely made it through the depo. Various people in the room were bringing her Vicks cough drops, Kleenex and other accoutrement.

Our sources say the depo wasn't groundbreaking ... no smoking gun."

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/28/nancy-grace-deposition-sick-melinda-duckett-wrongful-death-lawsuit-cnn/3#ixzz0kaMoYKse
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 3:24 AM No comments:
Labels: Nancy Grace

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Designer Suicide Preventable, but by Those Around Him

Those around the person are in the best position to intervene, and to get the person into ordinary treatment of their condition.

"In one sense, Mr. McQueen’s suicide wasn’t a surprise. Statistically, according to mental health studies, he fitted the characteristics of those most likely to kill themselves — single, middle-aged men who are under severe stress, which bereavement would certainly cause. Suicide is also a means of escape.

Mr. Leane believes that Mr. McQueen couldn’t deal with the pain of losing his mother. “She understood him,” he said. And that wasn’t an easy matter for his father. “With East End families, there’s always an issue with tradition,” Mr. Leane explained. “Lee’s dad was a cabbie, his brothers were a builder and a cabbie, and Lee wanted to make dresses. It wasn’t on their radar. I think there was a clash with his father in the beginning, because he didn’t understand. He said, ‘Now, what you want to do if you want to sell clothes is get a stall in the market.’ Lee told me that. And when Lee got the Givenchy job, he said to his dad, ‘Now, that’s the way to sell clothes.’ Lee loved his dad and his brothers. They just didn’t understand what he was getting into.”

Mr. Leane also thinks that Ms. Blow’s death and the prospect of losing a beloved dog were also contributing factors. “When he lost Issie, it was one of the elements, really,” he said. Based on interviews with his closest friends, this seems the most plausible explanation for his suicide. “It’s not great having all those important women disappear,” Mr. Treacy said. “And his mum was very important. He was the youngest.”"

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 3:30 PM No comments:
Labels: Prevention

Cluster of Suicides at Disney World

The exploitation of this tragedy by an union official is unfortunate. They have a model to address the problem in the Air Force program. The company also has the ability (less than the military) to force depressed or alcoholic workers into ordinary treatment. The Air Force program is history's most effective suicide prevention program. Yet it required no innovation, just the application of modern treatment methods.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 9:32 AM No comments:
Labels: Contagion, Prevention

Friday, April 2, 2010

Impossible that Neurontin Caused This Suicide

Neurontin is a weak mood stabilizer that likely prevents suicide. The suicider took it for over a year. When medications cause paradoxical intoxication and agitation, they most often do so at the start.

This family could not face its role in the suicide. It likely sought to scapegoat a medication. I am angry that Pfizer failed to fight this claim to the end. This settlement will invite 100's of additional lawsuits instead of deterring them.

The case citation is Shearer v. Pfizer Inc., 07-cv-11428- PBS, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 8:47 AM No comments:
Labels: Neurontin

Monday, March 29, 2010

Another Suicide After Bullying

These charges have to be unconstitutional. The act was a suicide. The charge is bullying, a vague, meaningless word. Now, anyone who offended the suicider may face criminal charges, e.g a boyfriend breaking up, a teacher correcting an assignment, a parent yelling at the victim.

In Japan, bullying causes much teen suicide. It takes another form than here, but is very devastating to the target. It consists of shunning. That is apparently unbearable to Japaneses kids. Under this Mass crew, not saying hello to a kid may become actionable and may result in prison time.

The suicide is a voluntary, intentional act. Without it, the bullying would have resulted in school discipline, not criminal charges. The defendants are being charged because of the act of another. Even if one had told the suicider, kill yourself, it would change nothing.One is being scapegoated for the act of another, in violation of the right to a fair hearing.

On the civil side, does the school have a duty to maintain a harassment free zone for all students? The school has a duty to provide an education, not physical security services. The concept of a hostile environment is a feminist tool to intimidate males, so that they cannot even look at a female without getting fired, sort of Chinese Virgin Empress style. Any parent or lawyer bringing such claims should be driven out of town, because they are just pretextually trying to plunder the school and the taxpayer.

The proper remedy for the victim of harassment, bullying? A smart slap to the face of the offending pig. If you want a legal remedy, get a protection order against the harassers. Sue the harassers for assault or discrimination, but not the school.

Most catastrophes are multi-factorial. This suicide likely had many causes. Bullying was likely a weak one among many.

The family is likely the biggest factor in suicide. They likely had the best knowledge about her condition. They had the best opportunity to get her treated. They had the most power to supervise her. They had the most power to inflict despair on her by their expressions of negative emotions against her. They may have had the knowledge of the genetic predisposition to suicide. We do not know if she was an abuse victim.

The immature utterances of a bunch of knuckleheads pales in suicide power compared to those factors. If the prosecutor failed to have these factors evaluated, including any finding of intoxicating substances in the body, the feminist lawyer must resign her position. This is a pretextual opportunity to advance the feminist orthodoxy that males are the cause of all female problems, however compelling factors closer to home might be.

"A Massachusetts prosecutor says nine teens have been charged in the "unrelenting" bullying of a teenage girl who killed herself, and two of them have been charged with statutory rape.

Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel (SHY'-buhl) says 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of South Hadley suffered months of nearly constant stalking and harassment in person and online. She killed herself Jan. 14.

Scheibel says school officials knew about the bullying, but none will face criminal charges."

And more.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 5:14 PM No comments:
Labels: Bullying

Friday, March 26, 2010

Smoking Is an Independent Risk Factor for Suicide

The feature common to smoking and to suicide is impulsivity, naturally. If that is not true, and smoking is truly an independent risk factor, one wonders if treatments for smoking, such as varenicline, reduce the suicide rate. This would contradict the extremist scapegoating of this medication.

From Medscape Medical News

Smoking May Be an Independent Risk Factor for Suicidality

Crina Frincu-Mallos, PhD









March 11, 2010 (Baltimore, Maryland) — Smoking may be an independent risk factor for suicidality, new research suggests.

A longitudinal study presented here at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America 30th Annual Conference shows a strong association between smoking and suicidality in a cohort of 3021 adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 24 years at baseline.

The Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology study, a prospective, longitudinal study, showed that prior occasional, regular smoking and nicotine dependence were associated with an increased risk for the onset of suicidal ideation, with odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 1.5 to 2.7.

Prior regular smoking and nicotine dependence were also associated with the subsequent first onset of suicide attempts (ORs, 3.1-4.5). According to the investigators led by Roselind Lieb, PhD, preexisting suicidality was not associated with subsequent smoking or nicotine dependence.

"Smoking increases the risk for subsequent suicidality. We have found it is a risk factor independent of other psychopathologies or other drug use,” Dr. Lieb, professor of epidemiology and health psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland, told Medscape Psychiatry.

The study appears to confirm results from a previous 10-year, longitudinal study published in 2005 that showed that current daily smoking, but not past smoking, predicted the subsequent occurrence of suicidal thoughts or attempts independent of major depression, prior substance use, and suicidal predisposition (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62:328-334).

Dose-Response Relationship

To further investigate the potential link between smoking and suicidality, Dr. Lieb and colleagues used baseline (T0), 1-year (T1), 4-year (T2), and 10-year (T3) follow-up data. Regular smoking, nicotine dependence, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts were assessed using the standardized Munich-Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

Analyses were based on logistic regression controlling for age and sex and additionally for alcohol and illicit substance use disorders, as well as major depression.

Longitudinal data from 2210 subjects were available for this study. Of these subjects, 33% (at T0), 44.7% (at T2), and 50.5% (at T3) were regular smokers. The trend was similar for nicotine-dependent subjects: 16.9% (at T0), 23.5% (at T2), and 28.3% (at T3).

In terms of suicidality, 10.1% (at T0), 13.8% (at T2), and 17.4% (at T3) reported cumulative suicidal ideations, and 1.8% (at T0), 4.8% (at T2), and 5.5% (at T3) reported suicide attempts.

The analyses of the 10-year follow-up data indicate that there is a dose-response relationship between the duration of smoking and suicidality.

For example, 7% of respondents with a former nicotine dependence (before T2 and during follow-up) attempted suicide, compared with 3.4% of respondents who were never dependent (OR, 2.12; P < .05). This rate increased from 10.1% for respondents who developed a new dependence during follow-up (between T2 and T3) to 16.8% for those who were former dependent smokers and remained so during follow-up.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 12:56 AM No comments:
Labels: Risk Factors

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Inpatient Suicide

Abstract

Suicides that occur while a patient is hospitalized are tragic events causing immense distress to relatives, peers, and professional caregivers. The prevalence of this infrequent occurrence is between 0.1% and 0.4% of all psychiatric admissions. This article reviews the literature to see if such events can be predicted and prevented; attempts to identify high-risk patients through demographics, diagnoses, medication treatments, and patient social situations; and examines the care-delivery environment such as length of stay and physical surroundings. This article also examines the means patients used to end their lives and when in their hospital course they did so. The authors ask if standard predictors are applicable to hospitalized patients, speculate on potential preventive measures, examine the effect on care providers, and explore what might ease the aftermath. Affective disorders or schizophrenia are most frequently associated with inpatient suicide. Most occur while patients are off the psychiatric unit. Suicides on-ward are usually accomplished by hanging; off-ward suicides are also often violent. Most patients denied suicidal ideation prior to the act. Factors associated with suicide in the general population are not consistently associated with inpatient suicides. Patient monitoring is not always effective. The first week of hospitalization and the days immediately after discharge are when patients are most vulnerable to end their lives. The authors conclude that the potential for suicide may be present from the initiation of hospitalization, but the ability to determine individuals at risk is, at best, poor.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 12:48 AM No comments:
Labels: Inpatient Suicide

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Malignant Depression Takes Marie Osmond's Adopted Son

Sometimes, depression is so deep, suicide is a logical choice. The remedies include 1) electroconvulsive treatment, 2) tranquilizers to tone down the intense distress, and the really delusional idea required to commit suicide.

Singer Marie Osmond was said to be ‘devastated and in pieces’ last night after her troubled adopted son committed suicide by jumping from the roof of his Los Angeles apartment.

Michael Blosil, 18, left a suicide note for his family saying he had decided to end his life because of the ‘torment’ of his long battle against depression and drug and alcohol abuse.

The note was also reported to contain the words: ‘I feel like I have no friends and will never fit in.’

A police source said Blosil, who had been adopted as a baby by Osmond and her ex-husband Brian, jumped off the roof of the ten-storey apartment block in central LA where he rented a £1,500-a-month flat.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1254282/Marie-Osmonds-teenage-son-Michael-Blosil-commits-suicide.html#ixzz0goVjGA7s

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 2:30 AM No comments:
Labels: Depression, Substance Abuse

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Patient Murders 2 Children and Kills Self 4 Months After Release

There are several problems with the plaintiff case. They wanted to be warned, even though they were not the immediate family.

1. Tarasoff Warning. That is required when a credible threat of immediate harm is made against a named individual. This is a review of the current state of that warning requirement. The Illinois has rejected this bad case law. (Tedrick v. Community Resources Center, Inc., Nos. 104861, 104876 (Ill. Sept. 24, 2009)


2. Several unforeseen intervening causes. These include the traffic stop, the batteries of strangers. The biggest is the irresponsible entrustment of the children to the care of a psychotic patient. Unless, it can be shown otherwise, the parents knew of the severity of the patient's psychosis. These failures to prevent the catastrophe break the legal chain of any causation by the doctors or hospital.

3) Garbage Science. Any expert asserting an ability to foresee the suicide 4 months in advance is asserting a supernatural power, in violation of the Establishment Clause. I would appreciate the name of the plaintiff expert, so that I may act upon him.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 3:33 PM No comments:
Labels: Defenses

Enraged Murderer-Suicider Flies into IRS Building

One can sympathize. But one hopes he targeted high officials who made policy decisions. These are armed federal functionaries with the humanity of Mafia loan shark collectors. It is unclear if his wife and daughter are dead, after being pulled from the flames engulfing his house. Here is his suicide note.

" A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an office building in Austin, Texas, that houses federal tax employees, setting off a raging fire.

Officials are investigating whether the pilot, identified by authorities as Joseph Andrew Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer who lived in Texas, crashed the plane intentionally. Stack was confirmed dead.

An Internal Revenue Service office is located inside the building.

IRS Agent William Winnie said he was on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single engine plane coming towards the building, TheStatesman.com reported.

“It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said, according to the Web site.

Winnie said the plane veered down and smashed into the lower floors. “I didn’t lose my footing, but it was enough to knock people who were sitting to the floor.”

Stack posted a suicide note to a social media Web site, ranting against the IRS, officials confirmed.

"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?'" the note read. "The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time."

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 2:34 PM No comments:
Labels: Ange, Murder-Suicide

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Guard Fired After Noting but not Intervening in Youth Hanging

"An Ohio youth prison guard has been fired and two others disciplined after a teen offender's attempt to hang himself in a juvenile detention cell was ignored.

A state investigative report obtained by The Associated Press says the guard saw the youth with a blanket around his neck, noted the suicide attempt on a log and walked away without intervening.

The report says two other guards who were later suspended knew the youth may have been attempting to try to kill himself but failed to check on the teen, who survived."

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 7:43 AM No comments:
Labels: Jail Suicide

Sunday, January 10, 2010

More Garbage Assessment of Suicide

If Dr. Shawn Christopher Shea ever serves as a plaintiff expert, I would appreciate being told about it. I would intervene in the case, and seek to have a mistrial, with costs assessed to the assets of this peddler of garbage science.

"A sound suicide assessment approach or protocol is made up of 3 components:

• Gathering information related to risk factors, protective factors, and warning signs of suicide.

• Collecting information related to the patient’s suicidal ideation, planning, behaviors, desire, and intent.

• Making a clinical formulation of risk based on these 2 databases.

Practical approaches to integrating these 3 aspects of a suicide assessment have been well delineated for adults and adolescents.1-8 Innovative systematic approaches, such as the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) approach created by David Jobes,9 have also been developed for integrating all 3 tasks while providing collaborative intervention, which may help lay the foundation for a more evidence-based protocol for suicide assessment. Recently, Joiner and colleagues10 have delineated a promising approach based on the interpersonal theory of suicide, which gracefully integrates all 3 components necessary for a suicide assessment."

Garbage.

Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 9:13 PM No comments:
Labels: Suicide Assessment

Court: Prison Responsible for Suicide Two Days after Threat

The court wants prison guards to have training and to report suicidal gestures and threats.

The court wants to enrich tort lawyers. About a third of the beds in prison are filled by straight mental patients. So this decision will generate a lot of lawyer fees.

The dissent should be read as a checklist of defenses for the government entity.
Posted by Suicide Malpractice at 8:49 PM No comments:
Labels: Jail Suicide
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The Mission of Suicide Malpractice Blog

To end lawsuits for suicide because they contradict the modern, multi-factorial understanding of the causes of suicide, and indirectly hurt many unseen patients. The sole claim for suicide with merit involves assisting the suicide in violation of law.

This site is for defendants and defense lawyers in suicide malpractice suits, to improve defense expert testimony, perhaps to reduce losses in adverse settlements or verdicts.

These settlements and judgments devastate the practice of psychiatry. They cause the needless incarceration of thousands of suicidal patients without proof of benefit. The resulting defensive treatments consume a large fraction of the budget for wasteful treatment and starve proven preventive measures. These lawsuits are also morally wrong. They extort money from the party least influential in the many factors causing the suicide of the victim, the clinician trying to help. If they continue, the most suicidal and neediest patients will be avoided.

Explaining modern, multi-factorial understanding of the causes of suicide in plain language may result in more common sense judgments from jurors. The defendant may also prosecute, with licensing boards and in court, attorneys promulgating "junk science." The frivolous, malpractice lawsuit, because of profound, indirect impact on medical costs and life threatening errors, is another serious ethical lapse.

In systems closed to attorneys (e.g. the military), the rate of suicide may be cut by a large fraction reliably, quickly, at almost no additional expense.

About Me

Suicide Malpractice
A psychiatrist runs this site. It gives moral support to the civil defendant's determination to defend clinical care from vicious lawyer predators and their misleading expert collaborators.
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