Suicide [Naturopathic "Doctor"]
Warning: This malpractice case deals with suicide.
It is very difficult to read and may not be appropriate for everyone.
This is a heartbreaking case of a 32-year-old woman who suffered from depression.
She was the married mother of 2 children and worked as a school teacher.
Over several years, she had seen multiple clinicians for her depression:
a psychiatrist
a psychiatry nurse practitioner
a counselor
a licensed psychologist
a naturopathic doctor
In August 2016, her symptoms began to worsen.
She saw a naturopathic doctor on August 18, but apparently there was no screening for suicidal thoughts.
A week later she was feeling especially bad, and she held her husband’s gun to her head.
She put it back down, and called her sister to tell her how she was feeling.
The patient went to a family member’s house, where multiple sisters and her mother staged an intervention.
Her family attempted to help her, but she did not want to go to the hospital. They stayed up most of the night with her.
Several days later her sisters and mother were texting with her in a group chat.
It is recreated below from cellphone records used in the lawsuit:
The husband would later discuss the situation in a deposition:
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The patient continued to see her medical providers over the next few months.
This included a phone visit with the naturopathic doctor in late September 2016.
Tragically, her condition continued to worsen.
She died by suicide in October 2016.
She was found dead by her husband of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, in the basement utility closet of their home.
The patient’s husband filed a lawsuit against all of the providers who had seen her over the past several years.
The psychiatry expert witness opinion is shown here:
A naturopathic provider was also hired to give an opinion.
Note the distinct similarities between the two opinions.
“Thanks again for all you do - it is much appreciated and gives us docs some much needed education on something we otherwise would only hear horror stories about!” - Dr. Lesnick
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The naturopathic practitioner offered to settle with the deceased patient’s husband for $1000.
Ultimately each defendant reached an agreement to settle the case, and it was withdrawn.
MedMalReviewer Analysis:
This case illustrates the danger of having firearms in the home. It’s a significant risk factor for suicide. If she had been brought to an ED after this suicidal gesture, she certainly would have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. It is impossible to know if this would have prevented her suicide months later.
A naturopathic doctor is not equipped to appropriately screen or manage psychiatric emergencies like suicidal patients.
It is evident that the attorney wrote these opinions and simply changed out the introductory text for each expert who was willing to endorse the opinion. This significantly detracts from the weight of the opinion for any medically-informed reader, but serves the legal purpose perfectly well.
This is the first time I have seen a defendant make the first offer to settle a case. The $1,000 offer is incredibly low. It is unclear if the naturopathic practitioner even has malpractice insurance. Plaintiffs would much rather collect from an insurance company, and have very little interest in trying to collect directly from individuals.
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This is entirely the husbands fault that he did not secure the firearm safely in the home and it is sickening he has dispersed even the suggestion of guilt and responsibility onto the clinicians that tried to help her.
It is extraordinary that no practitioner performed an evaluation of suicide risk and updated it on every meeting. Failure to remove access to the gun or make strenuous efforts for its removal is a major problem complicated further if this occurred in a state w a red flag law.