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Is the State The state Department of Health is investigating whether procedures were followed -- and if any changes are needed -- at Hawaii State Hospital, where two patients have escaped within a week.
Hospital having a
breakdown?
After two escapes within a week,
procedures are being thoroughly
probed; 12 escaped
in 12 monthsBy Jaymes K. Song and Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin"Procedurally, if we had a breakdown, it will be addressed," said Anita Swanson, Health Department deputy director of behavioral health.
Johnie Michael Gray walked out of the Kaneohe facility Saturday after he signed out to go to the gym, police said. He was found in Waikiki Sunday morning. Police said Gray was on "unsupervised status" at the hospital, although he had "a history of violence and is schizophrenic."
Gray, 46, who was committed to Hawaii State Hospital as early as 1973, was committed again in April 1981 after he was acquitted by reason of insanity for trying to murder two roommates, court records said.
On Oct. 23, Benjamin C. Andrion, a 43-year-old mental patient who stabbed his mother to death 20 years ago, escaped from the same hospital. He was seen running toward Kahekili Highway, but returned on Wednesday.
A dozen escapes in a year
According to the Health Department, 12 patients at the Kaneohe facility escaped during the past fiscal year, July 1999 to this June.Swanson said all "clients" have different levels of supervision based on the risk of harm to themselves or to others. The supervision level can change during various stages of the treatment cycle.
She also reiterated that the facility is a hospital, not a prison.
The department is "equally concerned" about the safety of the patient and the public when a patient leaves the facility, Swanson said. However, a person who was admitted to the hospital 20 years ago may have stabilized and not be the same person today, she said.
The Health Department again would not disclose specific information about the men's escapes or histories.
"(The patients) are afforded privacy rights under the law," Swanson said.
Gray has sought release from the hospital since his commitment and was granted discharge on Nov. 10, 1999, to a substance-abuse treatment center.
He lasted two days there before he asked to return to the hospital because it was too stressful, psychologist Gary Farkas said.
Gray has 'erratic' history
Farkas, who examined Gray in December, said he "would be a moderate-substantial danger to himself or others" if released from the State Hospital prematurely.Another doctor who examined Gray in November, Edward Furukawa, said he posed a "minimal risk of danger" to himself and others "as long as his mental conditions are held in remission."
Both doctors cautioned that even though Gray's behavior has stabilized while undergoing treatment at the State Hospital in part because of medication, the risk of him abusing drugs again is high, based on his past.
Gray has a long history of "erratic behavior" and command hallucinations involving murder when in the midst of a psychotic episode, Farkas said. His history of drug abuse "may stimulate his psychosis and his dangerousness."
Even though Gray had been granted conditional release on three occasions in the past 10 years, each time it was revoked because he began using drugs again and suffered auditory hallucinations, Furukawa noted.
After Gray was granted temporary conditional release in June 1998, he abused drugs.
In early 1999, Gray had hallucinations that commanded him to burn down his care home, behavior that got him into the hospital in the first place, Farkas wrote in his report.
Gray had admitted setting his Salt Lake apartment on fire in December 1980 as his two roommates slept, saying "voices" ordered him to.
The roommates escaped injury.
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