The family of a woman who committed suicide in a state psychiatric hospital has been awarded nearly $5.8 million in a medical malpractice action.
Court of Claims Judge Glen Bruening ruled from Albany that the woman identified as “V.C.,” who had a long history of mental illness, was not monitored carefully enough before she hung herself with a shoelace from a water knob in the shower room of the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center in Ogdensburg. She had been treated in several other facilities prior to her April 1, 2011, suicide.
