PUEBLO, Colo.—A Pueblo grand jury is investigating recent deaths at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.
KMGH-TV in Denver reported Tuesday that the investigation was under way. District Attorney Bill Thiebaut confirmed it to The Pueblo Chieftain but wouldn’t say whose deaths are under review.
Colorado Department of Human Services spokeswoman Liz McDonough said she couldn’t comment.
Among deaths at the hospital in recent years is that of a patient who was restrained and one who committed suicide.
Investigators say Troy Geske, 41, died Aug. 10 after he suffocated while being restrained face down with his arms immobilized.
Sergio Taylor, 23, hanged himself Sept. 10, 2009.
Joshua Garcia, 21, died Oct. 8, 2007, after complications from surgery to remove part of his colon. His family filed a lawsuit alleging Garcia was overmedicated in Pueblo, resulting in fecal impaction and a gangrenous bowel. His colon burst during surgery.
Garcia’s family and the hospital settled the lawsuit for $223,202.
Garcia was not sentenced to the hospital but was admitted when there was no space at a Denver facility.
On Monday, the Colorado Department of Human Services released a report by independent consultants that it requested after three patient deaths in the last year. It described how CMHIP staff can avoid restraining patients and recommended that the hospital develop a suicide prevention plan, among other recommendations.
“CMHIP relies too heavily on emergency interventions such as restraint and seclusion,” the report said. “We noted several instances in our clinical review where restraint and/or seclusion were used as a primary patient management approach.”
The department said CMHIP has eliminated the use of prone restraint, and it hopes to develop a comprehensive suicide prevention plan by the end of November.
The hospital has been unable to meet basic staffing requirements in recent years because of tight state budgets, the department said. The independent consultants estimated the hospital was understaffed by as much as 20 percent.
Before recent events, the hospital had had no suicides in the last 10 years and no deaths from placing patients in seclusion or restraint since at least 1964, the department said. The hospital has had 7,000 instances of seclusion and restraint since 2000.
