ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil rights inquiry into the deaths of two state mental patients, one of whom may have died while she was strapped down by her legs, arms and waist.
Gloria Huntley, a resident of the forensic unit at Central State Hospital in Petersburg, died last June. Derrick Wilson, housed in another building at the hospital, died in November 1993.
``The Department of Justice is interested and looking into circumstances of those deaths,'' said Dr. Timothy Kelly, state commissioner of mental health. ``We are cooperating fully with them.''
The Justice Department is focusing on whether the patients' rights were violated under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, said agency spokesman Myron Marlin. Such rights include freedom from undue restraint.
``We're considering whether federal action is warranted,'' Marlin said. If the department finds patient care problems, it will try to negotiate with the state to improve conditions. Failing that, the attorney general can take the state to court.
Kelly initially told The Associated Press that Huntley and Wilson died while strapped down. He said later that Wilson, 23, died at a hospital after he was removed from restraints.
He confirmed that Huntley, 31, had been in a five-point restraint - straps on legs, arms and waist - before her death but that it had not been determined if she died while under restraint.
Huntley was strapped to a bed after ``she went out of control and needed to be calmed down,'' Kelly said.
Like most residents of the forensics unit, Huntley had been found innocent by reason of insanity to a criminal charge. In her case, the charge was assault, Kelly said.
State police investigations of both deaths found no criminal wrongdoing, Kelly said.
Kelly said he could not disclose the cause of death in either case or where the patients were from because of patient confidentiality rules. He said the cause of death had been forwarded to the Justice Department, but that agency also refused to say how Huntley and Wilson died.
Physical restraints are considered the last resort in dealing with mental patients, according to Kelly and other mental health professionals.
``My understanding from talking to psychiatrists is that on a unit with adequate care and top-notch staff that the use of physical restraints is largely unnecessary,'' said Valerie Marsh, director of the Virginia Alliance for the Mentally Ill, an advocacy group for those with brain disorders and their families.
``What is of concern to me and what I would really want to know about is how often restraints were used'' on Huntley, Marsh said. ``If you do that over a long period of time, something is really wrong.''
Kelly said he assumed that Huntley had been placed under restraint before ``because it was part of her treatment plan.'' He said patients in restraints are closely monitored.
Marsh said the alliance had received reports that Huntley suffered from asthma and other physical problems, but Kelly refused to comment on that because of the privacy restrictions.
Dr. Mariano Piedra, a Richmond psychiatrist in private practice, said restraints are commonly used but should be employed with caution, especially for people with health problems.
``A person in a five-point restraint cannot sit up to swallow and would have difficulty breathing if they aspirate,'' said Piedra. Aspiration - saliva or food particles going down the windpipe - ``can really interfere with breathing,'' he said.
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