Death at West Oaks Hospital

In "client progress notes" dated June 14, the STRIDES nurse, Lee Villarruel, writes that she called West Oaks to say she planned to visit Mario that afternoon. She was told by a West Oaks nurse that Mario "was extremely violent," and that he put a staff member in a headlock; the employee was only able to break free when his T-shirt ripped. Mario spent the rest of his day doing kickbox moves.

After hearing this and consulting with coworkers, Villarruel postponed her trip. "We decided I would visit when the member's behavior was less violent." The next day STRIDES was notified of Mario's death.

It is clear that West Oaks would prefer to file this under the heading of "unfortunate and unforeseeable." But as the state investigation makes clear, that was not the case. Mario demonstrated repeatedly that he was violent. The staff members demonstrated just as often that they were unable to control him. One employee told investigators Mario "had superhuman strength." But there are 2:1 procedures designed for the most violent patients, and there were supposed to be restrictions on where Mario went. Neither was employed.

Brother Chazz's attorney, Aziz, says it is clear the hospital knew what they were dealing with in Mario and just as clearly failed to take the right precautions. "If Mario was acting violent, he should have been sedated or restrained. At the end of the day, you can't really blame him because he was mentally disturbed. The reason he was there was that they were supposed to take care of him.

"Yes, he was violent. His brain was not functioning like a normal human being would. Just the level of violence that was used against him was pretty extreme. When you have someone aggressive like that, you need a system to take care of it. The whole thing should never have occurred."

margaret.downing@houstonpress.com