$1 Million For Widow Of Suicide Victim In Albany, New York

Suicide Prevention

After 8 days of trial (and just before closing arguments), The New York Injury & Malpractice Law Firm, P.C. recovered $1 million for the widow of a 51-year old suicide victim in Albany, New York.

Upon arrival in the emergency department, the patient told a nurse that he “feels suicidal” and had ongoing financial, marital and family “hard times” Hours earlier, the patient’s brother requested a “welfare check” from the New York State Police based upon the patient’s expression of suicidal ideation and plan.

At the emergency department, the patient was seen by a physicians’ assistant, who just four months earlier had graduated from physicians’ assistant school and did not know how to perform a suicide risk assessment. The patient’s brother told the physicians’ assistant that the patient was suicidal, and this information was confirmed by the patient, but a suicide risk assessment was not performed. After 4 hours of sleep in a busy hallway in the emergency department, the patient was discharged from the hospital.

Following his discharge from the emergency department, the patient committed suicide by stabbing himself in the chest with a hunting knife in the parking garage of the hospital. The settlement will provide funding for the college tuition of the decedent’s children and the retirement of his widow.