Virginia's $700 million mental health system is scrambling to restore public confidence after the deaths of three patients at state mental hospitals in a little more than two years.
At Central State Hospital in Petersburg, a patient lay flat on her back, bound hand and foot, for hundreds of hours before she died.At another Virginia psychiatric hospital, a patient died after the hospital failed to treat her despite her complaints and warnings from family that she was dying.
Now the system is under scrutiny by the U.S. Justice Department and the media and under harsh criticism by patient advocacy groups.
The state Cabinet secretary responsible for the mental health system vowed last month to raise confidence in the system and improve patients' rights protections.
"Human rights is a very critical issue. We don't want the feds continuing to come into Virginia and tell us how to run our facilities," Claude A. Allen said.
The Justice Department has been investigating Virginia's mental hospitals since 1990 for what it says is inadequate patient care that has led to dangerous, sometimes life-threatening situations.
Lawsuits were settled last summer in cases involving Eastern State Hospital, Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute and Northern Virginia Training Center, which cares for the mentally retarded.
Laurie M. Flynn of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill said no state had more federal mental health investigations than Virginia.
"It's a remarkable sign of the relatively poor quality," she said.
Gloria Huntley, a patient at Central State Hospital, died in June 1996 after lying in restraints for 300 hours, including two stretches of nearly 110 hours straight, as punishment for outbursts against staff.
At Western State Hospital in Staunton, patient records obtained by the AP show nothing was done for Maura K. Patten between July 3, 1997, when her sister told the hospital that Patten feared she was dying, and July 7, when she was found dead in her bed.
At the same hospital, Carl McCloskey claimed his son, John McCloskey, 19, was sodomized with a broom-like handle so savagely by staff that his bowel was torn and his liver was punctured.
The teenager became violently ill at the mental hospital and lapsed into a coma, dying 14 months later.
Western State Hospital has strongly denied the charges.