Brother Files $6M Suit In Death Of Mental Patient

The brother of a woman who died in Western State Hospital has sued the state for $6 million, alleging gross negligence by the mental hospital’s doctors, nurses and administrators.

Western State records obtained by The Associated Press last year show nothing was done for 41-year-old Maura K. Patten between July 3, 1997, when her sister phoned and told the hospital Patten feared she was dying, and July 7, when she was found dead in her bed.

An autopsy showed that Patten died of coronary insufficiency, where the heart is unable to pump enough blood because of arterial blockage.

Failure to diagnose and treat Patten in a timely manner showed “such indifference to her health and safety as to constitute an utter disregard of caution, amounting to … gross negligence,” said the lawsuit filed June 17 in Arlington County Circuit Court.

Western State “let her rot,” said Patten’s brother, Ted Patten of Arlington.

“I consider Western State to be more like a gulag than a hospital,” he said in an interview. “I feel they violated her constitutional rights as a citizen to fair treatment, to honest treatment. I believe in a sense she was murdered by conspired neglect by the staff at Western State.”

He is seeking $1 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

Most of the allegations in the lawsuit mirrored state findings under the U.S. Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act, which requires an investigation into a questionable death at a mental facility.

Reed Boatright, spokesman for the state mental health department, refused to comment on matters under litigation.

On July 2, 1997, Patten, who had schizophrenia, called her brother and spoke to his friend, Margaret Owen, a registered nurse. Owen said Patten, who had nearly died from respiratory failure in 1994, told her “she was wheezing and said that she was not allowed to carry her inhaler.”

Owen notified Margaret Keller, Patten’s sister and authorized representative in family dealings with the hospital. She called the hospital the next morning. She says she was told Patten was in good condition and was just being paranoid and that no one would be available to examine Patten for several days.