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Psychiatric Patient Given Burning Bath Therapy

Psych Ward Worker Under Investigation

BERNIERVILLE, Que., Updated 5:23 p.m. EST December 19, 2000 --A worker at a psychiatric hospital near Thetford Mines is under investigation after a patient was burned while being given a bath, and later died.

The incident is alleged to have taken place last week at the St-Julien psychiatric hospital.

The patient suffered second-degree burns on 40 per cent of his body and later died of a suspected heart-attack.

The director of the psychiatric hospital in Bernierville says disciplinary measures will be taken against the employee who bathed the patient.

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I posted this story because the audio version given on tv had more to it than does the online version. Apparently, the temp for baths in this institute is regulated at 41 degrees C but, for some reason that a hospital spokesperson says they haven't figured out, this bath was 56 degrees C.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 20, 2000

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Thursday, December 21, 2000

Worker fired after disabled patient dies

SAINT-FERDINAND, Que. (CP) -- A psychiatric hospital said Thursday it has fired an employee who left a deaf and mute patient in a scalding bath that led to his death.

Hospital administrators said an internal investigation found the employee was negligent and did not follow proper guidelines when he left the patient alone. He also failed to double check the temperature of the bath. The worker's name was not released.

The unionized employee could contest the dismissal from St-Julien psychiatric hospital, located in Thetford Mines, Que., about 100 kilometres south of Quebec City.

Jean-Jacques Camera, hospital administrator, said the decision was made after careful consideration.

"Morally, I did not feel capable of doing anything else," he told a news conference.

"If I had been comfortable with another type of decision, I would have made it."

An autopsy confirmed that Marcien Poulin, 43, suffered second-degree burns to more than 40 per cent of his body from the bath Dec. 9 at the hospital.

He died nine days later of severe shortness of breath due to bronchial pneumonia. The burns weakened him enough to contract and die of the illness.

Two attendants had left Poulin, 43, in the bath to break up a fight between two other patients.

Poulin, who used a wheelchair, wasn't strong enough to lift himself out of the hot water and was unable to give distress signals.

He was alone for only a couple of minutes before attendants returned and found him unconscious, Camera said Thursday.

Camera has also blamed a defect in the bath's thermostat which was supposed to ensure that the bath water was never hotter than 41C.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 21, 2000.