No charges filed in AZ patient death
Hospital Safety Connection, October 28, 2003
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The Arizona Attorney General's Office will not seek criminal charges against any of the Kino Community Hospital employees involved in the takedown and restraint that killed a psychiatric patient in July, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
Assistant Attorney General John Evans decided there was no evidence the employees who restrained Wendy Gazda did anything "that was a gross deviation from what a reasonable person would do in the situation," he wrote in a letter to Tucson police.
But an attorney for the Gazda family said the death was at the very least, negligent homicide, and possibly manslaughter.
Gazda, an overweight 32-year-old woman with a history of psychosis, died July 15 while several employees pinned her to the floor to control her behavior. Police said a security guard kneeled on Gazda's upper back and refused to get off her until after she stopped moving. By the time the guard got up, Gazda's face and arm had a bluish tinge and she was dead.
The Pima County Medical Examiner's office said Gazda suffocated during the restraint and ruled her death a homicide. The death nearly shut down the facility, after investigators discovered dozens of violations of state and federal hospital regulations, including a failure to properly train employees in the use of restraints.
The state health department has already fined Kino $12,750, the maximum penalty allowed for the number of regulatory violations the state documented. Investigators documented that hospital employees held Gazda facedown on the floor for 15 to 30 minutes, said attorney Philip Tor, who represents Gazda's family. The family plans to pursue legal action against the hospital and Pima County, which owns the facility.
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