ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
A doctor's warning that Central State Hospital patient Gloria Jean Huntley could die in restraints was not given to investigators after she died strapped to a bed, according to the state mental health commissioner.
Huntley died June 29 in the Forensic Unit at the state-run mental hospital near Petersburg. Almost a year earlier, her psychiatrist, Dr. Dimitrios Theodoridis, had warned Central State officials that Huntley would be more likely to die if restrained because of her asthma and epileptic seizures.
In a Feb. 5 memorandum, mental health commissioner Timothy Kelly said he has asked the state internal auditor to find out why Theodoridis' warning ``was not provided to various persons conducting reviews of her death last fall.''
Kelly also said in the memo that he has asked the auditor to determine whether the hospital staff heeded Theodoridis' warning and his appeals that Huntley be treated more humanely. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo.
In a statement released through his office on Thursday, Kelly said the investigation is continuing and declined further comment.
The U.S. Justice Department also is conducting an inquiry into the deaths of Huntley and Central State patient Derrick Wilson, who died in restraints in May 1993. The agency wants to determine whether the hospital violated the patients' civil rights with undue use of restraints.
David Deutch, the Justice Department lawyer handling the case, said there also were ``possible criminal ramifications'' from the inquiry. He refused to elaborate.
Kelly said the mental health agency is cooperating fully with federal investigators in providing the Justice Department with all documents relating to the two patients.
Theodoridis' July 11, 1995, report was addressed to the hospital medical director at the time, with copies to hospital director James Bumpas and nine other hospital officials.
The report, titled ``Duty to Warn,'' admonished staffers against restraining Huntley as punishment because ``following physical struggle and emotional strain, a patient may die in restraints ...'' The report also said nurses and aides had ignored Huntley as she lay unconscious during potentially fatal epileptic seizures.
Bumpas confirmed receiving the report but declined to comment Thursday when asked why it wasn't given to investigators. Kelly said he was unaware of Theodoridis' report until he was contacted by the AP.
Theodoridis said investigators did not talk to him until after an AP story based on his memo appeared on Feb. 4. He said he did not approach investigators because he believed it was the duty of hospital administrators to turn over his report.
If he had circumvented the chain of command, ``I'm sure it wouldn't please people because they would see it as an attempt to cause people trouble,'' he said in a telephone interview Thursday from his office at Central State.
Mental hospitals restrain patients by strapping down their arms and legs, and sometimes their waists as well.
Huntley's autopsy, completed on Jan. 24, said she had died of ``acute and chronic myocarditis while in restraints.'' Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart.
Huntley, 31, was hyperactive and had serious learning disabilities and had been in the hospital off and on since she was 13.
Theodoridis was her attending physician until she was sent to the maximum-security Forensic Unit, which houses mental patients charged with crimes. She was moved from Theodoridis' unit after her July 5, 1995, attack on two Central State staffers, one of whom required emergency surgery for an eye injury.
In his memo, Theodoridis wrote that the attack was prompted by the hospital staff's refusal to follow his treatment regimen of nurturing and encouraging the patient. Instead, he wrote, the staff became more menacing toward her.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB