Man's death at hospital prompts state inquiry - St. Louis Post Dispatch

By Carolyn Tuft

BRIDGETON — The Missouri Department of Mental Health is investigating the death
of a mentally disabled man Sunday morning in a hospital ward at DePaul Health
Center.

Timothy Davis, 28, was found dead in the hospital's 20-bed ward for mentally ill patients.

Bob Bax, spokesman for the Department of Mental Health, told the Post-Dispatch
in an interview that the death prompted department officials to investigate.
Davis was a "department consumer," which meant that the state managed and
oversaw his care.

Department officials sent Davis to the hospital Dec. 20, Bax said.

A hospital worker alerted a reporter to Davis' death. The worker said he was
"troubled" by the death but that he could not be identified because he would
lose his job for talking to the media.

A spokeswoman for DePaul said she could not comment on Davis' death because of
federal regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act, designed to protect the privacy of medical patients. She said she would
ask the family for permission to release more information.

The state already is investigating the death of another mentally disabled man.
Jessie Thompson, 47, died Jan. 8, minutes after he took a shower at a private
home. The state's mental health department ordered an autopsy by the St. Louis
County medical examiner.

The medical examiner's office still has not released the cause of death.
Thompson had spent years living at the state-run Bellefontaine Habilitation
Center in Bellefontaine Neighbors before state officials sent him last year to
the privately run home where he died.

The death of Thompson has renewed calls from family members who want state-run
habilitation centers for the severely mentally disabled to remain open