Western Psych shooting victim pursues civil case

A woman who was severely injured in the shooting six years ago at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic continues to fight to have her case heard in civil court.

Kathryn Leight’s attorney, Mark Homyak, appeared before Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday and argued that the three-judge panel should reinstate claims that she filed against UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Physicians for failing to properly treatJohn Shick.

Shick, a paranoid schizophrenic, shot and killed one person and severely injured several others after he entered the Oakland hospital on March 8, 2012. He was then killed by University of Pittsburgh officers respondingto the scene.

Ms. Leight, a receptionist there, was shot in the chest andabdomen.

She sued the hospital and the group of primary care physicians who treated Shick prior to the shooting for breach of a duty of care, alleging that they were grossly negligent in failing to have him involuntarily committed.

In 2014, now-retired Senior Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. dismissed those claims, finding that the gross negligence standard required for a liability claim only applies to “persons involved in the involuntary treatment of mentally ill persons and voluntary inpatient treatment of mentallyill persons.”

Because the doctors who saw Shick were primary care physicians, and Shick was never involuntarily committed in Pittsburgh, Judge Wettick found, the claimscould not stand.

But Mr. Homyak argued Wednesday that on two separate occasions, doctors with University of Pittsburgh Physicians began the process of having Shick involuntarily committed but nevercompleted it.