Jan Bach took her mentally retarded daughter, Elizabeth, to a raft of doctors who said that the young woman’s chronic pain was physical, not mental, before she found psychiatrist Bruce Leonard.
“She got sicker and sicker and she was tortured in these emergency rooms all over the city. Leonard, who I had never heard of, saw my daughter and set everything up to transfer her to Fort Logan (mental health center.) No one wants to invest the time in an adult with mental retardation and mental illness,” Bach said.
On Sunday Leonard will receive an Eli Lilly & Co. “Heroes in the Fight” Award for his work with the mentally ill.
Leonard couldn’t be reached for comment.
Peers and patients nominate candidates for the award, which celebrates doctors and other medical personnel who have made a difference to their patients, said Lacey Berumen, executive director of the Colorado National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI.
“Because it is peer and community selected, it means a lot more. You are not just recognized by other people they work with; it is patients saying, ‘You are an amazing doctor,’ ” Berumen said.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at (303)954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
