THE LOST:
Victims of Inpatient Suicide

The American Association of Suicidology and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention  report that an average of 30,000 to 32, 000 people complete suicide annually in the United States alone. In 2005, the year for which the most recent statistics are currently available, that number was 32,637. 

 In  2003, renown suicidologists Jan Fawcett, Doug Jacobs and K.A. Busch  reported in their publication, "Clinical Correlates of Inpatient Suicide," that of the 30,000 suicides per year in the United States, 5% -6% occur in hospitals.*  This extrapolates the number of inpatient suicide deaths from a low of 1500 to a high of 1920 annually.
These are needlessly lost lives.......preventable deaths.......true tragedies .

Since suicide is most often perceived as a "choice," even within the medical and mental health fields, the victim is often held to blame.  It's called "Blaming the Victim."  When a suicide happens, one of the most closely held and often verbalized beliefs among mental health professionals is,  "When a person wants to kill him/herself there is nothing you can do to stop them."  BTS would like to know:  How can any mental health patient be safe when this belief is widely expressed and often the excuse and rationale  given from the mental health community when an inpatient suicide happens?

Why, then, does the public not know of these cases?  The answer is simple.......

The truth is, people who have attempted suicide yet have lived to talk about it express quite the opposite sentiments.  Afterwards, they often  express  that they feel blessed to still be alive:  that they truly wanted to live but just wanted to live without the mental pain and anguish they were experiencing at the time of their attempt.  They tried to complete suicide not to end their life but to end their PAIN.  Thus, it's the getting people safely through their pain and to the other side that is paramount.  We cannot allow our caregivers to subscribe to the belief that "if they want to do it there's nothing you can do to stop them."  We say YES there is.  Keep them safe and get them through their crisis.

When one completes suicide in a hospital or treatment facility, the patient is left to blame.  From our  personal  experiences we can attest that the "finger pointing" begins immediately.  Those left behind are discouraged from filing a lawsuit against the hospital/treatment facility because this is seen as a "victimless" occurrence, the patient's choice, and is often defended by the cliche, "there's nothing you can do to stop them once they make up their minds to do it."  Those of us who know differently, and file a lawsuit, quickly learn that hospital  administrators then hide behind their insurance company's law firm.  These firms' attorneys work to incriminate the victim, his/her family and friends.  They resort to tactics that seek to prove that those of us left behind - in some unscrupulous way - were the perpetrators of this tragedy.  In some way, it was our fault. Our lives, our loved one's life, and everything about our families are put under a microscope and become an open book.  Defense Counsel points  the finger at us trying to uncover what we may have done to have "caused"  or pushed our loved one to end his/her life.  We are cold-heartedly attacked.  We can only imagine that it's similar to being a rape victim in a courtroom.  We are "put on trial" for oversights that clearly happened elsewhere.  It is common practice for defense lawyers to attack, intimidate, and victimize the family along with the deceased patient.  Once again, it's "blaming the victim" and attempts to distract from the facts.  In our  opinion, it's a game of intimidation used to scare the Plaintiffs from pursuing litigation and trial.  It's a difficult and grueling process and not for the timid.  For the hospital/treatment facility, their insurance company and their counsel, it's  all about the money and not about what's right and just. This has become our American judicial system.  It's abominable.

Most families fall victim to this and walk away. Some are embarrassed by the longstanding, social taboo of a suicide and never deal with it again.  They bury their loved one, bury their heads, keep everything silent and try to move on.  Others file lawsuits and settle out-of-court for money in exchange for Confidentiality Agreements and their eternal silence.  Thus, you will never, ever hear about these tragic, inpatient deaths.  The hospitals buy their integrity back with money and all their secrets disappear.  Case files are returned and sealed or destroyed.  It's as if nothing ever happened: as if these patients never died......or lived.

Tort Reform has also made these cases difficult to litigate.  Many States now have mandatory, monetary caps on damages, and restrictions or  guidelines for awarding punitive damages, which make these mental health cases unappealing  to most medical malpractice/wrongful death attorneys.  Often these lost lives have no financial value:  they were young and left no dependants or financial obligations behind. With no guaranteed "pay day" at the end,  it can be difficult finding a  Plaintiff's attorney, particularly one who will take a case on  contingency and will commit to taking it to trial.  Thus, these deaths go unknown, unacknowledged, unchallenged, and unaccounted for.  Hospitals and treatment facilities move forward, most never addressing or fixing the errors and mistakes that lead to these tragic and unnecessary deaths. 

As President/Founder of BTS, I commend those who stand up and tell the hospitals and their insurance companies that they will not be silenced with money.  I applaud those who believe their loved ones' lives matter enough to make a difference and more than any amount of money in the World.  I thank those of you who are standing up with me and my family  and saying, "These are unnecessary , tragic losses and anyone is at risk.  The public needs to know.  The problems need to be exposed and fixed."  
                                               -Denise Burne Fein

Nancy Dixon - Mother of Denise Lee Dixon
Sharon - Mother to Brandon
Diane - Mother to Laura
Karen - Mother to Sean
Cathie and Vanessa - Aunt and Mother to Kristina Lucas
Skip Simpson, Michael Stacy and all the lawyers who are not discouraged by these cases, challenge the system,  and stand up to fight for those who no longer can fight for themselves.

Below is a list, a small Memorial, to some of those we have lost to inpatient suicide and their loved ones who have fought for them.  In spite of the 1500-1920 patients that we know perish each and every year, the list below is disproportionately small.  Here is why.........