A San Luis Obispo County couple’s lawsuit against Santa Barbara County, Marian Medical Center, and a Ventura hospital hit a roadblock earlier this year after Judge Timothy Staffel ruled in favor of the hospital and county.
Cynthia and Gary Hayes, through their attorney, Jude Egan, claimed the medical centers and county exposed Cynthia to excessive mental trauma by forcibly committing her to psychiatric treatment at Vista del Mar in Ventura on April 16, 2015.
On Aug. 23 of this year, Judge Staffel of Santa Barbara County Superior Court sided with the hospital’s counsel, consisting of three attorneys: Thomas Beach, Mindee Stekkinger, and Darryl Hottinger. They argued that Cynthia had attempted to take her life with a combination of prescription and over-the-counter pills, in part due to her bipolar disorder. Further, Santa Barbara County’s and Marian’s attorneys showed that the Hayes’ claims for damages were beyond the one-year statute of limitations in all cases.
The lawsuit was first filed on May 31 of this year.
Hayes’ attorney did not respond by the court’s deadline to contest the county’s claims, but a case management conference was held on Nov. 15 in Santa Maria. The minute order from those proceedings have yet to be filed, according to the court’s records office.
Such conferences typically involve attourneys from both sides of a case, and in the Hayes’ instance, the most recent meeting would have focussed on how or whether they wished to proceed with their lawsuit.
‘I tried to end my life’
After Cynthia Hayes’ daughter found her mother unconscious in her home on April 14, 2015, it didn’t take long for the paramedics to arrive.
At the emergency room at Marian Regional Medical Center, she was incoherent and unable to assist staff as they conducted blood and urine analyses.
The tests found no drugs or toxins in her system. A full body examination found no evidence of physical trauma or injury.
The treating physician wrote in his notes that he believed Cynthia’s condition was not due to a suicide attempt.
This is all according to the original complaint filed by Egan, which details the damages sought by the Hayes.
Cynthia spent the next two days at the hospital, mostly sleeping, he wrote in the court document.
Around 10 a.m. on April 16, Epimaquio Gomez, a peace officer at Marian, interviewed Cynthia, first with her family and later by herself. He then placed an involuntary “5150 Hold” on Cynthia due to an attempted suicide and ordered her to be sent for the minimum required 72 hours to Vista del Mar’s psychiatric hospital in Ventura.
Both plaintiffs and defendants agree the above events on April 16 occurred.
However, a key piece of the suit is a dispute over what happened next and why.
According to Gomez’s attorneys, Cynthia told him she took 30 Klonopin pills and at least 10 Ibuprofen pills. They also claimed that Cynthia expressly wrote in a precommitment statement: “I tried to end my life.”
These pieces of evidence contradict claims made by Cynthia’s husband, Gary, and their lawyer, who cited the previous drugs tests administered by staff that found no trace of drugs in her system.
Cynthia denied ever telling Gomez that she took any pills at all, let alone tried to commit suicide or harm herself. Her attorney wrote in the original complaint against the hospital and county “the most likely culprit was that she had doubled or tripled up on her Seroquel [bipolar] medication by forgetting that she had taken her dose earlier in the day.” Cynthia similarly disputed Gomez’s claim that she agreed to enter treatment.
As staff readied to send Cynthia to Ventura, a series of arguments ensued between Gary and Gomez, the complaint said. Cynthia’s family argued to the peace officer that she was being hospitalized against her will if she were to be sent to Vista del Mar and that they could monitor her themselves in the coming weeks.
At the very least, they pleaded, send her to a treatment facility closer to her home, instead of 100 miles away in Ventura.
Gomez was unmoved, and Cynthia was transported to the hospital later that day, according to the complaint.
Egan dubbed the incident a violation of her civil rights, and argued they had 42 U.S. Code 1983 on their side, or “civil action for deprivation of rights.”
‘A danger to herself’
The fallout from the five days she eventually spent at Vista Del Mar resulted in irreparable trauma, according to court documents. Her lawyer told the judge she suffered from agoraphobia, anxiety, and insomnia following the stay.
“She had difficulty eating and even difficulty speaking,” he argued.
Nine months after Cynthia was discharged from the hospital, Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) officers raided her home in the middle of the night.
ATF made the move due to California’s Welfare and Institutions Code, 5150, which was used to detain Cynthia and said she was a danger to herself. Another state law attached to that code prohibits those with 5150 holds from owning firearms for five years. Mental health facilities and psychotherapists receive civil immunity for reporting such holds to law enforcement under another welfare and institutions law, Code 8103.
Since the raid, Egan told the court, Cynthia’s conditions worsened.
She further withdrew from society, he said. Even things that used to bring her joy, like taking care of her grandchildren, became too much of a burden to bear. She still suffers from her time at the hospital in Ventura and the events that led up to it, her attorney argued.
But because of the statute of limitations for filing a claim, these facets of the case were pushed to the background.
It is not clear how the plaintiffs plan to proceed. Neither the Hayes nor their attorney could be reached before the Sun‘s press time.
Staff Writer Spencer Cole can be reached at @scole@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 7, 2017.