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GUARDS WATCHED AS MAN DIED - STATE AGREES TO MAKE POLICY & PROCEDURE CHANGES MIDDLETOWN, February 23, 2006 - The State of Connecticut has agreed to a $2.35 million settlement in a lawsuit filed following the death of a severely mentally ill 39-year-old man who was in custody at the state's maximum security mental hospital. Judgment against the State of Connecticut entered in Waterbury Superior Court, Complex Litigation Docket. James Bell, formerly of Bridgeport, died April 3, 2002, while at Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital. Lawyers for Mr. Bell's family, Jim Nugent of Nugent & Bryant and Antonio Ponvert III of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, announced the settlement today. "This seems to be the largest settlement ever paid in connection with the death of a person at Whiting," Nugent said. The lawsuit alleged that Mr. Bell, who had been at Connecticut Valley Hospital since 1998, was denied proper treatment and medication to control paranoid schizophrenia. On April 3, 2002, he became profoundly distressed, agitated and aggressive. Nearly two dozen guards, medical personnel and other staff members forced him down and shackled him on the floor, and then watched as he lay motionless, with eyes closed, making "gurgling" noises, dying. Whiting staff, including James' treating psychiatrist, later said they thought he was pretending to be asleep. "When one staff member who checked James' breathing announced that something was wrong, rather than immediately rendering emergency first aid, the Whiting staff dragged him, still on his back, to an isolation room," Nugent said. "They saw his pupils were dilated. They saw blood in his mouth. They saw he was unresponsive, not moving and not breathing." "Rather than care for James and try to stimulate his breathing, the staff twice injected him with a powerful sedative, Thorazine, which produces a severe drop in blood pressure - exactly opposite what should have been done," Nugent said. "There was no way he could have survived this terribly negligent mistreatment." A result of this case, the State of Connecticut has changed policies and procedures at Whiting, hopefully preventing a repetition of this horrible incident. "Mr. Bell had a long history of mental illness and was unlikely ever to be able to hold a job," Ponvert added. "That makes the details of this settlement particularly noteworthy as settlements in cases of untimely death are typically based upon the individual's lost earning capacity." The lawsuit named 24 defendants, including the Connecticut Dept. of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), DMHAS Commissioner Thomas A. Kirk, Jr., James's treating psychiatrist Dr. Keith Scott, Whiting nurses, nursing supervisors, agency police officers and other staff members. The settlement includes a payment to Mr. Bell's family of $1.25 million in cash plus a waiver of a lien for $1.1 million (the cost of his state public assistance that otherwise had to be repaid from settlement cash). Jim Nugent of Nugent & Bryant is a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer who handles cases involving serious personal injury and wrongful death throughout the State of Connecticut. Antonio Ponvert, III of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder specializes in civil rights and class action cases. < Return to Main News Page The Law Firm of Nugent & Bryant handles legal matters in the following areas: Car Accidents, Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, Automobile Accidents, Motor Vehicle Accidents, Car Wrecks, Motorcycle Accidents, Semi's, Tractor-Trailers and Large Truck Collisions, Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims, Wrongful Death, Bicycle Accidents, Pedestrian Accidents, Nursing Home Abuse, Inadequate Security, Construction Site Injuries, Catastrophic Injury, Sexual Assaults, Drunk Driver Accidents, Alcohol-Related Traffic Crashes, Dog and Animal Bites, Elder Abuse, Insurance Denial, Defective Products Liability and Civil Rights Cases. The type of injuries include Spinal Injuries, Quadriplegia and Paraplegia, Herniated Discs, Back, Neck and Brain Injuries, Spinal Injuries, Burns, Amputations, Wrongful Death, Fractures and Broken Bones, Skull Fractures, Ligament and Tendon Injuries, Blindness, Hearing Loss, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Nerve Injuries. For immediate help, any time, any day, |
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