BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - A wrongful death lawsuit blames Beverly Hospital for the suicide of a man who seemingly wandered into the woods to die in the Massachusetts cold.
The Estate of Daniel Alan Donovan sued the hospital, Lahey Behavioral Health and three health care workers on Sept. 21 in Suffolk County Superior Court. The complaint alleges they failed to recognize the risk of suicide by Donovan, a 47-year-old UPS employee who had told his mother on Jan. 21, 2022, that "his brain was broken."
He presented to the Beth Israel Lahey Health Beverly Emergency Department later that day as "increasingly suicidal" with plans to jump in front of a tractor-trailer. According to the hospital's notes, he said he "can't endure my life any longer."
It was also noted he had a previous suicide attempt by carbon monoxide in 2000. Staff failed to address the seriousness of the situation, the lawsuit says, and granted his request for a discharge home on Jan. 26, 2022. He claimed he had no more suicidal thoughts.
The suit complains he had no ride or money and his cell phone was uncharged when he was discharged. He was never seen alive again.
"It is very likely he proceeded directly to the woods around Beverly Hospital and proceeded to disrobe and lie on the ground to die," the lawsuit says.
"The night of Friday, Jan. 26, 2022, was cold with temperatures as low as 18 degrees Fahrenheit, and the following day there was a large snow storm and temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit."
After his body was found, a medical examiner ruled his cause of death as hypothermia. His body had two antidepressants in its system and was SARS-CoV-2 RNA-positive.
The suit says Daniel was kept in the emergency department for five days because of his COVID and without psychiatric treatment and that a planned bed search by a psychiatrist possibly never happened.
"(S)ince he has been in the ED he has regularly denied (suicidal ideations) and has been future oriented," says a note by staff the day he was released.
Representing the plaintiff are attorneys at Law Offices of Bradford Eliot Keene.