LITTLE ROCK — A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the daughter of a woman who committed suicide while an Arkansas State Hospital patient.
Amber Shelton filed the federal suit against the hospital, the state Department of Human Services and several public officials and health professionals after her mother, Brenda Shelton, hanged herself in her room at the hospital on Oct. 25, 2008.
Brenda Shelton had been placed on suicide watch when she admitted herself to the hospital five days earlier, but she was taken off suicide watch three days before she hanged herself. She was still alive when nurses found her but died five days later.
Amber Shelton’s suit alleged that the nurses who found her mother refused to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because no protective shields were available, and that when a doctor arrived on the scene he also did not administer that type of aid.
The suit also alleged that ambulatory breathing bags that would have aided in Brenda Shelton’s rescue were inaccessible because they were in a locked storage room. A nurse had accidentally locked the key to the room inside the room, according to the suit.
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Amber Shelton claimed that the hospital’s policies, the nurses’ failure to act and the failure of the nurses’ supervisors to train them properly contributed to Brenda Shelton’s death.
The suit also alleged that the defendants violated Brenda Shelton’s constitutional rights by failing to treat her properly when they found her hanging in her room and violated her rights under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by not placing her in an environment appropriate to her needs.
U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes dismissed the federal claims with prejudice, meaning she cannot sue again based on the same facts. He dismissed the state claims without prejudice, electing not to exercise jurisdiction over issues that could be decided in state court.
Amber Shelton filed an appeal, and a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis affirmed Holmes’ ruling Tuesday.
The court said the defendants would have owed a constitutional- level duty of care to Brenda Shelton if she were an involuntarily admitted mental patient, but she admitted herself voluntarily.
“After defendants discovered Brenda, she was no different from any unconscious patient in an emergency room, operating room or ambulance controlled by state actors,” and any duty they owed to her was owed under state law, not the Constitution, Judge Michael Melloy wrote in the opinion.
The appeals court also said the allegations in the lawsuit did not fall under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act. The court said that because Shelton admitted herself she was not “placed” anywhere except on — and later off — suicide watch.
“There is no allegation that the removal from suicide watch was influenced by anything other than a physician’s judgment,” and medical treatment decisions do not fall under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act, Melloy wrote in the opinion.