When the Hospital Fires the Bullet

It wasn't the first time the hospital has killed a patient using the same technique. In the subsequent years I have spent a lot of time thinking about why he died and the indifference of those around him when he was most vulnerable. Law enforcement refused to investigate mostly on the grounds that he was insane and there was nothing anyone could do.

He had three kids and a wife who was a social worker. She was later fired as the state of Wisconsin decided social services where no longer a priority.

I've come to the conclusion that most of us would rather ignore the problem of mental illness rather than solve it. It's more convenient to kill the ill than treat them and society simply looks the other way.

I am given hope that his son is now a leading neuroscience Ph.D. Candidate at UC Davis. He has vowed to not let his father's death be in vain.

I think this is extremely dangerous.

Has anybody else made this observation? Is there anything that could be done to change this?

Previously many of these dangerous cases would be locked up until they were safe. Now, everybody just tries to treat them as an outpatient. That with the easy access to guns makes hospitals very dangerous places these days.

It provides an insight into the internal experiences of somebody suffering from delusions. In his interview, Alan Pean tells a vividly detailed account of how he experienced the manic episode. He recalled how, at times, he would be able to rationalise the delusional thoughts away but they came so quickly, it was difficult to stay rational as the delusions had their own internal coherence.

One memorable part of his story was when he described how he “escaped” from his third floor apartment building to get to the hospital: he locked his front door (which he thought was being watched by enemy agents) and then swung down from his balcony to the one below it and on to the ground, all the time telling himself to “Remember your training, remember your training” (while in reality, he’d never trained as a secret agent).

In his delusion, Alan thought he would be killed by either a missile strike on his apartment complex or be shot by the enemy agents who were circling in for the kill. The interviewer points out the tragic irony that when Alan finally made it to the place he felt would be safe, that he was actually shot.

Alan still finds it difficult to deal with the fact that a police officer was willing to take his life with a gunshot to the chest. I can imagine such an experience being deeply traumatic for those of us with good mental health but it must be much more difficult for someone already dealing with psychological issues.

From a personal point of view, a woman in my social circle about 15 years ago was suffering from bipolar disorder. I’d known her for about a year but had no clue that she had any problems with mental health. Then one day my brother and I met her on the street while she was having a manic episode. We took her into our home to look after her. I can’t recall the details but we found looking after her to be a distressing experience. We invited other friends in common around to help as we felt very much out of our depth. The next day her parents took her to a psychiatric hospital where she spent a few weeks while the doctors found a combination of medication that helped even out the mood swings.

[1] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/579/m...

Why does this happen? I know someone who showed up to the ER after crashing his car during a delusional manic episode. His wife showed up and said he has a history of bipolar disorder and needs a psychiatric evaluation. The nurse literally laughed at her!