A Roberts Creek woman filed a lawsuit on Jan. 2 that alleges St. Mary’s Hospital failed to properly care for her suicidal 15-year-old daughter who attacked her with a baseball bat shortly after being released.
The civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court alleges St. Mary’s Hospital (operated by Vancouver Coastal Health) and its employees, a physician and a nurse, breached their “duty of care” to the teen by allowing her to leave the hospital before it was safe to do so in January of 2013.
The claim states that the teen had a history of mental illness and that she was first admitted to the hospital at the end of November 2012 after running away from home and later being apprehended by police.
St. Mary’s staff allegedly let the teen leave, which required the RCMP to apprehend her again. Once returned to the hospital, the teen’s mother and social worker asked staff to keep the teen in hospital until she could be interviewed by a psychiatrist as they felt she was a danger to herself, court documents said.
Approximately two hours later the teen was allegedly released without seeing a psychiatrist.
Later, on or about Jan. 6, 2013 at about 1 p.m., the teen was again taken to the hospital by a police officer who noted she had several cuts on her wrists, was in an agitated state and possessed a razor blade.
The teen had allegedly carved the words “Monster F*** Up” in her wrist and had about 50 other fresh cuts and another 50 partially healed cuts on her arms that she had inflicted upon herself.
The claim states that staff wanted to transfer the teen to Vancouver Children’s Hospital; however, the transfer could not be completed that day.
The teen’s mother asked that her daughter be kept at St. Mary’s overnight, but she was allegedly told there was no care available for the girl locally.
A staff member then offered to give the teen a sedative before leaving the hospital as well as a prescription for more sedatives to fill later, the claim states.
The prescription was something the teen had never had before and the claim notes that the girl “was released to the plaintiff without determining that [she] was calm.”
Once at home the teen became enraged and threatened to commit suicide. Court documents note she went into her room and emerged with a baseball bat, delivering approximately five blows to her mother, which rendered her unable to call police.
The mother said she fended off further blows with a vacuum cleaner before escaping outside and calling police from a neighbour’s home.
The teen then allegedly locked herself in the house, cut her wrists and spread her blood all over the walls.
Police apprehended the teen and returned her to St. Mary’s Hospital at 4:30 p.m. that day according to the lawsuit. She was eventually transferred to Lion’s Gate Hospital for further care.
The teen’s mother is now suing St. Mary’s Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health, the physician and the nurse for failing to properly care for her daughter, which resulted in personal injuries due to the attack.
Vancouver Coastal Health would not comment on the lawsuit as it is before the courts and the defendants have yet to file a response to the civil claim.
While the claims of the plaintiff have yet to be proven in court, stories like hers are being collected by Lower Mainland resident Gary Mauris at www.desperatefamiliesofbc.com in an effort to present the first-hand accounts to Premier Christy Clark in the future.
Mauris has a brother who suffers from mental illness and he wants to see the provincial government provide more support for those who are afflicted and their families.
