Hospital Helpless To Stop Suicidal Patients

Written by Pio Sioa
Sunday, 03 August 2008
Lemalu Dr. Limbo Defends Against Watching Out For Patients Who Are Suicidal. Police investigations are leaning more towards suicide as the official reason behind the death this week of a 45-year-old male, who was found stabbed with a knife on a hospital bed of the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital. The incident was discovered in the Acute 8 Ward at dawn break on Monday morning. “The result of the post mortem on the body should be available next week to confirm the cause of death,” Assistant Commissioner Papali’i Li’o Masepa’u confirmed to Newsline yesterday. “But our investigations so far appears to be pointed towards suicide,” said the police spokesman, Papali’i revealed similar cases in the past, where the victims were found to have been sick and was under pain for some time. ‘ I can quote a suicide case very similar to this one, where the person involved opted to take his own life to be at peace after being sick for a long time,. “So this kind of situation is not new to the police except that it is the first time that it has allegedly occurred in the hospital.” Patients who commit suicide while under the care of the Hospital’s is a rarity, according to the Manager Of Clinical Health Services, Lemalu Dr. Limbo Fiu. ‘There has never been any cases like this since I began working here at the hospital.” He is grateful however that situations like these rarely happens. “There is no way the nurses and doctors can police against patients who wish to committee suicide while being admitted for medical care ,”Dr. Fiu confessed. ‘When patients are examined by the doctors and found to require important healthcare, they are simply admitted and assigned a bed to use. “Nurses and doctors are not required to attend to the patient at all times, like they should with a patient who is in a critical condition at the High Dependency Unit, HDU, “ The stabbed victim was allegedly admitted on Sunday after he was seen by an outpatient doctor. His wife was reportedly with him at his bedside until the early hours of the morning when she stepped out briefly, allegedly to do a chore her husband wanted from her. One of the areas the police investigation is looking at is how none of the nearby patients with family members in attendance, heard or so nothing. The victim was identified as a primary school principal by the Assistant Police Commissioner. Comments (3) Subscribe to this comment's feed Psychiatry vs Suicide written by Jemin, August 03, 2008 The patient's diagnosis of "suicide" by the police should be enough evidence to look into why the hospital did not admit the patient into a mental ward initially. Did the patient admission plan even include precautions necessary for an unstable mental patient, such as 24 hour protection? If the patient (a well educated guy) was able to kill himself the way he did, his psychiatric status must be highly suspected in the beginning of his medical evaluation. Whether the patient "opted to take his own life to be at peace after being sick for a long time" or not, it is still not an excuse for a proper medical evaluation. ... written by Vaavaai ma Matau, August 03, 2008 Explains our extensive need of more psychiatrists. ... written by CHERYL NEEMIA, August 07, 2008 I agree with Vaavaai , however this is not just happening in Samoa it is also happening in Brisbane Hospitals we need more help with the mental health system jus-t because you carn't see the illlnes don't mean that the patient and the family are not suffering. Write comment Name Email Title Comment

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Polls

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

Google Satellite Map of Eveni Carruthers

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

"Where the natives buy and sell"

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

Latest Comments

Manu Samoa 7s Win in Uruguay
Felicidades - Malo le taumafai and keep up the good work - Uruguay's strength is actually in soccer ...

Manu Samoa 7s Win in Uruguay
Faamalo atu i le tatou au.O lea foi ua toe faamanuiaina le au ale atunuu i faaga tama o le lakapi.fa...

Local Fans Eager For Tua vs Cameron Fight
Hi David Tua, Its your big fan from Arizona, I go onilne every week to find out when your next fight...

Manu Samoa 7s Win in Uruguay
congratulation boys..pls keep on wining and all the best for the up coming tournament....

St, Joseph College, does it again.
SOLE EAGLE O OA MAI OE ? O OLA LE MAGU HAHA VAAI LE MAGU I PE hahahahahah fafaga le eagle i faga e...

Social Network

Join the Newsline Team on Bebo

www.bebo.com/newslineS

Become part of the Newsline Bebo Network

Get News via your Email

Subscribe to Samoa Live News Headlines by Email

Get the Latest News on your Blackberry or PDA

Subscribe in a reader

Sounds from Samoa

Listen to broadcasts from LiveSamoa.com
Courtesy of Plantation Feet, SBC(540am) and
Radio Polynesia(99.9 FM)

http://www.samoalive.com/sliveradio.asx

Live on Weekdays from 8am to 9am

Have your Say

We want your Opinion

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
If you would like to submit a letter for possible
publication in the print edition of the Newsline,
please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We want your News

Submit News from your Area
If you would like to submit News for possible
publication in both the online and print version
of Newsline please feel free to email us
at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Become a News Blogger
Have a passion for writing? Interested in
writing articles for Newsline? Email us
at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
We are looking for Bloggers from
around the world to contribute to our site.