Patton State Hospital patient hangs himself

A 50-year-old patient at Patton State Hospital has died after hanging himself in his bedroom, officials say, the eighth suicide at the San Bernardino psychiatric facility since the federal government began investigating potential violations of patients’ civil rights at state-run mental hospitals in 2002.

The Jan. 4 death of Marc Biron, who was described by one fellow patient as “friendly and kind to people,” is the third since a consent judgment mandating a wide array of changes was imposed on the hospital in May 2006. In a letter to state officials about Patton at that time, federal civil rights attorneys had noted that “of great concern is the high number of suicide attempts by hanging.”

California Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Nancy Kincaid said staff members had checked on Biron about 5:30 a.m., finding him asleep, and at 5:45 a.m., when he was in the bathroom. When they next checked on him, he was hanging from the wardrobe in the bedroom by a radio cord.

Three patients at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk hanged themselves from bedroom wardrobes in 2005 and another in 2008. The hospital replaced the wardrobes after that with a type that could not be used for hanging.

Before Biron’s suicide, all of the hospitals had planned to install new wardrobes, but Patton had not yet received its replacements, Kincaid said. Patton staff had recently rearranged patient rooms to make wardrobe doors more visible during checks.

“The people in our care are the people who are the most ill,” Kincaid said. “It is a great challenge when we are dealing with someone who is focused on ending their own life. Trying to identify those individuals and head that off has been a real focus at the hospitals.”

Patton State Hospital Executive Director Octavio “Carlos” Luna led a treatment group in which Biron participated, and said there were no signs that he was suicidal.

Although “any suicide is unacceptable,” Kincaid said, the hospitals have made progress in identifying and removing materials that can be used for self-harm -- such as foot lockers and curtain fixtures. Patton’s last suicide was a year ago, when Augie Solez hanged himself with a sheet from his closed, windowless bedroom door. The hinges have since been changed on the doors to prevent patients from hanging anything on them, Kincaid said.

Napa State Hospital, which with the hospitals in San Bernardino, Atascadero and Norwalk is also subject to the consent judgment, lost a patient to suicide last month. Michael Cobb, 47, had given no indication that he was suicidal and had a grounds pass, Kincaid said. He concealed a sheet in his clothing and was found hanging from an air-conditioning unit behind a building at 3 p.m. Dec. 13. The death followed another Napa hanging from a bathroom light fixture in August.

Department of Mental Health data show there have been nine suicides and three homicides at the four hospitals since the consent judgment was imposed in mid-2006. In a similar 3 1/2 -year period preceding the consent judgment, there were 14 suicides and three homicides.

Biron loved the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan and played guitar in a hospital band named Barriers to Discharge, bandmate Anthony Geraci said.

“He was a very positive, talented type of individual,” Geraci said. “He had something to contribute. He wasn’t looking for trouble. . . . This came as a surprise.”

California’s mental hospital patients predominantly arrive through the criminal justice system, in which they are deemed too ill to stand trial or face release from prison, or not guilty by reason of insanity. Biron entered Atascadero State Hospital in 1989, and then spent time in prison before arriving at Patton in 2005.

lee.romney@latimes.com