Turned away
After seeking help related to suicidal impulses, Michaela Walsh was told it was safe to go home, but hours later, she was back in hospital after attempting suicide
A Charlottetown family is taking the rare step of speaking publicly about the details of a recent suicide attempt.
They hope that speaking out will change how people struggling with mental health issues are treated within the healthcare system.
Michaela Walsh, who has struggled with mental health issues and addiction, said she admitted herself to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s emergency department last week because she was experiencing suicidal thoughts. She was asking for help.
She left the ER feeling like she did not matter after she was discharged by staff on duty.
“I’m just so frustrated with the inconsistency, lack of communication and, well, just plain ignorance,” she posted on Facebook hours after the encounter.
“This is why people in crisis stop reaching out and end up dead.”
Hours later, she was back in hospital after an apparent suicide attempt.
Days prior, her experience in hospital was much more positive.
She had been swiftly admitted to the psychiatry unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after experiencing a crisis. She was told by a psychiatrist to increase her dosage of medications and to come back to hospital if there were any issues.
On July 29, after Michaela experienced suicidal thoughts, she and her parents checked back into the emergency room. She was seen by a crisis care nurse, who explained that the psychiatry ward was full, but there was a chance she could still be admitted. The nurse suggested Michaela would be seen by a psychiatrist.
Instead, she was seen by a general practitioner.
“He said he liked my shirt, it’s very retro,” Michaela told The Guardian, referring to the MTV T-shirt she was wearing.
The doctor then told her she would be discharged. The meeting with the doctor had lasted about a minute, she said.
“I immediately started sobbing and he just walked out of the room,” Michaela wrote on Facebook.
He later told her family his team did not believe she posed a danger to herself.
Early the next morning, her mother, Doreen, thought she heard Michaela call her from her room. Doreen opened the door to find that Michaela had cut her own arms.
“Her arms were covered in blood. She was on the phone, actually to my other daughter,” Doreen said.
“My daughter said ‘she took pills’.”
Michaela had consumed at least 46 Seroquel pills, a medication used to treat depressive disorders, as well as an unknown quantity of another prescription pill.
She was rushed back to the emergency room, was given a charcoal drink to keep the drugs from being absorbed in her stomach. The cuts were not deep and did not require stitches.
Michaela was kept in hospital for six hours and saw a psychiatrist more than 24 hours later.
Both Doreen and Michaela say that, with the exception of her treatment on July 29, the care received has been exceptional. Michaela has been seeing a psychiatrist as well as a counsellor. She trusts healthcare staff and has felt safe while staying in Unit 9 since the emergency room incident.
But Michaela cannot understand why the doctor on shift on July 29 allowed her to leave hospital. She had been told repeatedly by health-care professionals to visit the emergency department if she experienced thoughts of suicide.
In a statement, Health P.E.I. said emergency doctors are trained to evaluate and triage patients.
“If a patient is deemed by the treating ER physician to be appropriate for admission the case will be referred to the psychiatrist on call,” the statement read.
“A patient who is considered to be high risk would not be discharged.”
The statement noted patients with mild to moderate depression, anxiety, personality disorders or panic attacks are “best managed as outpatients.”
Health P.E.I. did not clarify whether or not a psychiatrist was on duty on July 29 at QEH.
Doreen says other people have had similar experiences. A Facebook post she wrote about her daughter’s experience has been shared over 1,500 times. Others struggling with mental health issues have shared similar stories of their experiences with the health-care system.
“It’s hard for them to ask for help. And then to go and finally have the strength to ask for help, which they’re told to do, they go and ask for help and (they are) turned away,” Doreen said.