The plaintiff, age thirty-one, went to an emergency room in January 2002 after experiencing insomnia, psychosis and auditory and visual hallucinations. The plaintiff admitted to taking gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) four days earlier, along with a prescribed anti-convulsant, sedative and anti-panic medication for his insomnia. The plaintiff was diagnosed with psychotic disorder and paranoid schizophrenia from a drug-induced psychosis.

Later that evening the plaintiff was involuntarily hospitalized, at which time he came under the care of a psychiatrist and the defendant nurse. The psychiatrist met with the plaintiff for about twenty minutes and then ordered checks on the plaintiff every fifteen minutes. The defendant nurse met with the plaintiff shortly before midnight and documented his auditory and visual hallucinations, as well as signs of paranoia, but had no other contact with him.

The plaintiff reportedly received the periodic checks during the night, but early the next morning he threw a table through the window of a bathroom and jumped. He fell five stories to the ground. The plaintiff suffered a spinal injury which left him paraplegic. The windows were made of tempered safety glass, not impact resistant laminated glass.

The plaintiff claimed that one-one-one observation should have been ordered. The defendants claimed that the plaintiff’s assessment did not find him suicidal or homicidal.

The defendants also claimed that they believed that the hospital’s windows were made of impact resistant glass. According to a Reporter, a defense verdict was returned.

With permission from Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts; Lewis Laska, Editor, 901 Church St., Nashville, TN 37203-3411, 1-800-298-6288.