Horrible Story from our local paper

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 8, 2006

So very sad.

mona b RN, BSN, RN · Jan 9, 2006

An absolute tragedy:(

grannynurse FNP student · Jan 9, 2006

This is certainly a tragedy but I have several questions. If she was there under a civil commitment, why was she not on a secured unit? How did she obtain the keys to her mother's car? It is obvious that she was still severely depressed. Her treatment, at best, was inadequate.

Grannynurse:balloons:

Thunderwolf, MSN, RN · Jan 9, 2006

Very tragic. And to think that some folks do not believe that mental illness exists (on another thread). People suffer. This story is just another example of so many. A double tragedy. My heart goes out to this family.

Balder_LPN, LPN · Jan 10, 2006

This is certainly a tragedy but I have several questions. If she was there under a civil commitment, why was she not on a secured unit? How did she obtain the keys to her mother's car? It is obvious that she was still severely depressed. Her treatment, at best, was inadequate.
Grannynurse:balloons:

In our state a pt under civil commitment may earn privileges to have access to the state hospital grounds, she had apparently left the premises at the time she was not locked in the unit.

I dont know exactly how she got the keys, but my understanding from local knowledge (my daughter is friends with her neice) is that her mom was not home, and she just went in the house and took the keys and then the car. No one even knows how she got from the hospital to here, its about 3 hours drive away.

My questions on this are: Of course, what went wrong here? how could she have been helped to prevent this? Was it indeed preventable? What could have been done differently for her to obtain a different outcome?

and really what fascinates me about psych....What made Genel different from the avg woman of her age in our community, what made this illness suddenly strike her at this age? she had apparently never had any problems before the last few years