I was recently involved in a multidisciplinary team evaluation of a patient who attempted suicide by placing a shotgun in his mouth. He survived the attempt but was left with only half a face. I was consulted as my department does advanced 3D imaging work to include prosthetic reconstruction of such profound defects.
As I was sitting in this team meeting a question was raised by a social worker on the visitation rights for his wife. The social worker reported that this woman had been married twice before and both previous husbands had successfully committed suicide. This was husband number 3 who had survived his suicide attempt and the wife wanted to visit her husband to "comfort" him.
The question raised to the care team was the wife a danger to her husband knowing the general history as outlined above. We were not privy to all the details but there was some suspicion that the patient's wife may have been a contributing factor to the suicide attempt. I was surprised to see that the care team had differing opinions on this matter that pretty much split down gender lines. I found this interesting.
The men on this particular care team felt that visitation for the wife should be carefully monitored until it could be determined that the wife was not a contributing factor to the patient's suicide attempt. The women on the care team felt that since she had not been arrested by law enforcement that the question was irrelevant. In fact one member stated that perhaps the only thing she is guilty of is making bad choices. It wasn't her fault that the men she chose to marry kept killing themselves.
Since this BB is a wonderful place to sample such diverse, well educated and experienced opinion I thought it would be an interesting case study to present.
