Background: The Psychiatric Institute of Washington in Washington, D.C. (Google Maps). Inset: U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announcing the indictment on (Jeanine Pirro/Facebook).
In a deeply unsettling case from Washington, D.C., three psychiatric facility employees have been charged with criminal negligence after allegedly allowing a patient to die without intervening. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has announced that Nelson Kuma, 37; Richard Hounnou, 45; and Norma Munoz-Bent, 68, are facing serious legal repercussions following the death of a 58-year-old patient identified as “G.W.”
These charges stem from an incident on April 24, 2020, at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. On that day, G.W. experienced a critical medical emergency requiring resuscitation, according to Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Despite the gravity of the situation, a subsequent event occurred two days later that has raised significant concerns.
Video evidence from April 26 captures a distressing scene: at 12:38 p.m., G.W. appears to begin breathing heavily while lying unclothed on a mattress placed on the floor. Despite the obvious signs of distress, the situation continued to deteriorate without adequate response.
“As a result of his being at this facility, he was one of those patients who was on what is called one-to-one care, which means that someone is supposed to be caring for him, watching for him, and every 15 minutes, someone is supposed to be doing a health check,” Pirro said in the news conference streamed by area CBS affiliate WUSA.
At one point, a hospital technician entered the room and observed that G.W. was struggling to breathe. Shockingly, as noted by Pirro, the technician failed to take any immediate action for a period of four minutes, a critical delay that could have made a significant difference in the outcome.
This tragic case highlights the severe consequences of negligence within healthcare settings, emphasizing the crucial responsibility of caregivers to respond promptly and effectively to emergencies. All three individuals have been arraigned following a grand jury indictment issued on March 31, as the case now moves forward through the legal system.
“A second tech enters the room; they fist bump each other, and for seven minutes, they have a very animated conversation,” she added. “It’s as though the patient on the floor, who was suffering from labored breathing, is not even there.”
About 10 minutes after the patient’s apparent labored breathing began, the registered nurse walks in. She “stares at the patient, she puts her hands on her hips,” but she doesn’t touch him before leaving the room a minute later.
The staff members ended up checking the patient’s blood but improperly, the U.S. attorney alleges. For at least 21 minutes, the patient reportedly “did not receive lifesaving measures,” and by the time proper efforts were taken, “it was too late.”
He died inside the hospital. It is unclear why the indictment took nearly six years to be brought against the defendants.
“Here’s the bottom line,” Pirro stated. “This trio did nothing to help this patient. They didn’t call a code blue, they didn’t check his pulse, they didn’t attempt CPR. They didn’t initiate resuscitation efforts. They did nothing. Instead, they chatted, they walked around, they didn’t touch him while he lay on a mattress, dying.”
A “code blue” announcement at a hospital is widely understood to mean a patient is experiencing an emergency that needs immediate medical attention.
The case was investigated by Disability Rights D.C., which Pirro thanked during her news conference. The organization said it “remain[s] concerned about patient safety and adequate psychiatric treatment at Psychiatric Institute of Washington and continue[s] to monitor the facility,” per Washington, D.C., NBC affiliate WRC.
The Psychiatric Institute of Washington says on its website that it “is a 130-bed facility with inpatient, intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs” offering “psychiatric assessments and comprehensive behavioral healthcare to children, adolescents and adults who are experiencing mental health and substance abuse issues.”
G.W.’s family has reportedly filed a lawsuit in his death.
After they were arraigned on Tuesday, Kuma, Hounnou, and Munoz-Bent were released pending trial. They are set to return to court on May 29.
