Heart Patient Apparently Stabs Himself to Death in Hospital

Deeply depressed because his diseased heart had put him back in the hospital, a 79-year-old patient apparently stabbed himself to death as he lay in his bed at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, police said Tuesday.

A nurse found Earl Muskopf of Pacific Palisades with a hunting knife protruding from his chest at 11:05 p.m. Monday, after she noticed a sudden drop in his heart rate, which was being electronically monitored in the coronary care wing.

Hospital spokesman Armen Markarian said Muskopf was rushed to the intensive care unit, where doctors worked on him for 41 minutes before pronouncing him dead.

Santa Monica Police Detective Shane Talbott said Muskopf’s family told him that the elderly man had suffered from heart disease for a long time, had been hospitalized several times before and was badly depressed by his disability.

Talbott said he was told that Muskopf “had been talking about suicide for some time.” He was hospitalized again Sunday after suffering congestive heart failure.

In addition to the ordinary physiological autopsy, Talbott said he has asked the Los Angeles County coroner’s office to conduct a psychological autopsy to determine the victim’s state of mind.

Markarian said the knife was not listed on the inventory of the patient’s personal possessions, but may have been brought in by him in a suitcase or shaving kit.

Talbott said the weapon was a hunting knife with a 3 1/2-inch blade which Muskopf, once an avid hunter, had owned for some time.