UCLA Held Negligent in Mental Patient’s Suicide

A jury Tuesday unanimously found the University of California negligent in the 1993 suicide of a 26-year-old man in the locked ward of a UCLA psychiatric hospital, awarding the victim’s parents more than $8 million in the first wrongful-death medical malpractice verdict against the UC system in recent years.

But a California law severely limiting malpractice damages may reduce the award to a largely symbolic gesture.

Sujon Guha, a communications expert with a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard, was found hanging by a belt in his room at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Hospital four days after being committed to the facility. He had not previously been diagnosed with mental illness, but seemed agitated and paranoid when his father took him to a UCLA hospital emergency room on Thanksgiving Day seven years ago.

In an elaborate lawsuit after six years of dogged amateur sleuthing into their son’s death, Arun and Kajal Guha charged that the UC regents, six physicians, three registered nurses and one mental health worker had contributed to the tragedy by shirking their duties to care for the young man.

Lawyers for UC acknowledged during the trial that mistakes were made but argued that they were mere errors of clinical judgment that did not contribute directly to the death.

After an eight-week trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court with Judge Judith Chirlin presiding, the jury agreed that UC officials were responsible for substandard hospital policies and practices that played a role in the death. The jury did not muster the nine votes necessary to implicate any individual health workers in the young man’s death.

The award consisted of $8 million for pain and suffering; $50,000 in presumed economic support he would have provided to his parents; and $6,448.56 for funeral and burial expenses.

Arun Guha, 65, said he did not feel fully vindicated by the verdict, however. He was very pleased with the finding that the hospital contributed to his son’s death, but expressed deep disappointment that the jury rejected a related charge that his son was the victim of an unauthorized medical experiment. “I feel my journey is not over yet,” he said.

The Guhas’ lawyer, Dale Galipo, said he is considering seeking a retrial on the issue of unauthorized research or experimental treatment.

Peter Schneider, a UC attorney who oversees medical malpractice litigation, said he could not recall when the university system went to trial in a wrongful-death case, let alone losing one. Schneider said UC might appeal the verdict as a whole, challenge specific jury decisions or let it stand.

In any event, it is likely that the amount will be radically reduced when defense lawyers, led by Joe Hilberman of Fonda, Hilberman & Fraser, ask the judge to apply a California law limiting pain and suffering awards at $250,000. As a matter of routine, juries in malpractice cases are not informed of the legally mandated cap.

Guha, 65, has spent more than twice that amount to press his case over the years. A semiretired aerospace engineer who lives with his wife in Silver Spring, Md., he has pursued the case single-mindedly, digging up telltale documents and prompting investigations from federal and state authorities.

His complaints to the organization that accredits hospitals led to an investigation that found multiple deficiencies in the psychiatric hospital’s procedures. That prompted the hospital to be put on probation for 10 months, beginning in September 1994. The last accreditation evaluation, in 1998, commended the hospital for its practices.

Guha reportedly turned down a $700,000 settlement offer years ago.

At the center of the case were dozens of allegations of negligence and cover-up among the hospital workers.

Among the charges were that the staff failed to watch Sujon more closely and returned his belt after a day, though he had said he might harm himself; that he was seen by an attending physician for only five minutes over four days; and that staff failed to consider that a medication he had previously taken might have triggered some of his symptoms.

His father maintains that Sujon’s temporary psychosis was triggered by metoclopramide, an anti-nausea drug he had taken during a business trip overseas. It can trigger mild to severe symptoms of depression in people with no prior history of the problem, including “suicidal ideation and suicide,” according to the Physician’s Desk Reference.

Several jurors expressed anger at UCLA for neglecting the young man. “I hope we send a message to the regents and the hospital to get their act together,” said juror Joan Sedov of San Gabriel.

One change UCLA made in response to the tragedy was to increase holiday staffing for the Neuropsychiatric Hospital.