Dallas VA closes psychiatric wing after 4th patient kills himself

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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/041508dnmetvahospital.3b5c763.html


The Dallas VA Medical Center has effectively closed its psychiatric wing after a fourth mentally ill patient this year committed suicide.

On April 4, a man fastened a bed sheet to the bottom corner of a door frame, draped a noose over the top, and hanged himself. Before that, a veteran hanged himself on a frame attached to his wheelchair. And in January, two men who met in the psychiatric ward committed suicide in Collin County days after being released.


Officials said the government hospital, which was rated the nation's worst VA facility in a 1995 study, stopped admitting patients the day after the most recent suicide.

Investigators from the national Veterans Affairs office will be in Dallas next week to assess the safety of the Dallas psychiatric ward. Doctors sent patient records and other documents to Washington last week for review.