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Patient death may be suicide

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A 43-year-old patient at a troubled state-run psychiatric hospital has died in what appears to be a suicide, coroner’s officials said Friday.

Augie Solez, who was in long-term commitment at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, was found unresponsive at 11:34 a.m. Thursday, said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Sandy Fatland.

He appeared to have hanged himself, Fatland said, but an autopsy has not been completed and a cause of death has yet to be determined.

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His death comes 2 1/2 years into a consent judgment reached in federal court between California officials and the U.S. Department of Justice that called for sweeping reforms to prevent suicides and assaults among the state’s mental health patients.

That agreement was announced shortly after federal officials released a scathing report that found that Patton suffered from high rates of patient-on-patient violence and repeated suicide attempts by hanging.

Solez was discovered in a room after “somebody opened the door and the body fell to the floor,” said a hospital psychiatrist who asked not be named for fear it could jeopardize his job.

Solez had apparently used some sort of a sheet to hang himself from the windowless door, the psychiatrist said. Medical staff were unable to revive him.

“If you cannot see behind the doors, there can be surprises,” said the psychiatrist, who expressed outrage at the death. “This is California. This is America. We should have good care for patients.”

If Solez’s death is ruled a suicide, it would be Patton’s sixth since 2003.

Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health, said the death is under investigation.

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“It is devastating to the staff when they lose somebody,” Kincaid said. She said she could not elaborate on the details of the death because of the ongoing probe and patient confidentiality.

About six weeks ago, Patton patient Gilbert Anthony Mendoza, 49, was beaten in the face by a fellow patient during a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in the hospital’s dining hall, according to Mendoza’s friend David Pretzer, who is also a patient at Patton.

Mendoza received stitches and was briefly hospitalized, Pretzer said, but his nose continued to bleed after he returned to his unit. About two weeks after the incident, Mendoza began to have trouble breathing and lost consciousness, according to Pretzer.

Mendoza was pronounced dead Dec. 8 at St. Bernardine Medical Center, authorities said.

It is unclear whether the death was related to the beating, as the San Bernardino County coroner is waiting for toxicology tests and has not ruled on a cause of death.

The San Bernardino County district attorney has charged the other patient, Terence Robinson, with battery causing serious bodily injury. A patient was last slain at Patton in 2006; two patients were slain in separate incidents in 2005. Before 2005, the hospital had not had a slaying in 11 years.

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ron.lin@latimes.com

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leora.romney@latimes.com

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