‘Wicked’ Wyoming hospital staff accused of severely abusing mental health patients for over 30 years

The death of two mentally ill patients in Wyoming has sparked a fresh probe into a state hospital where staff are alleged to have raped and abused people in their care.

One patient who was supposed to be on a soft food diet choked to death on their food in July. Another was found dead in their room beside a pool of vomit a week earlier, despite being on tight monitoring schedule.

Protection & Advocacy System Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston as well as the state Department of Health over the fatalities.

The patients’ rights group is demanding the hospital handover CCTV footage from inside the hospital, which has been engulfed in several scandals over the past three decades. 

In 2015, a patient was abandoned in a dayroom in the hospital without food, water or bathroom access for over 24 hours. 

The woman, Linda Gelok, was found reeking of urine and with ants crawling on her open sores. 

In June 2018, a 39-year-old patient hanged himself on the hinges of his shower door with a bedsheet. The following October, a nursing assistant was charged with three counts of sexual assault of a patient two years earlier. He later pleaded no contest.

From 2014 to 2019, the Evanston Police Department has responded to 82 reports of assaults and other serious incidents at the hospital. 

Wyoming-based disability rights group Protection & Advocacy System Inc. filed a lawsuit against the Wyoming Department of Health and state hospital directors last week alleging several instances of abuse of mental health patients include rape by a staffer and severe neglect.

The latest suit was filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne.

The legal filing included a report that one of the patients who died had been missing teeth and did not have dentures. 

The patient choked to death on July 22 after eating large pieces of meat and bread. 

Video footage obtained by the patients’ rights group showed that hospital staff failed to abide by a soft-food-only order after the patient previously swallowed a whole hamburger and choked, the lawsuit alleges.

Less than a week earlier, hospital staff found another patient dead, rigid, and cold in their room with vomit on the floor.

Hospital staff that morning noted in mandatory safety checks every 15 minutes that the patient in question was ‘calm’ and ‘resting’ with their ‘eyes closed’.

But the lawsuit alleges that video showed employees only glanced in patient rooms and logged one check on the patient that apparently never happened. 

Video also captured footage of the patient coughing earlier in the day, which staff failed to document, according to the lawsuit.

‘We feel that we have no choice but to do so as we are gravely concerned about the life, health and safety of the patients at the Wyoming State Hospital,’ Protection & Advocacy System attorney Andy Lemke said by email Monday.

Wyoming Department of Health spokeswoman Kim Deti declined to comment on the latest lawsuit or hospital conditions.

The state health department stopped giving video recordings to the disabilities rights group in October.

Hospital Director Paul Mullenax told Protection & Advocacy System that the hospital is reviewing its policy about recording patients without their knowledge, which could be violating Medicaid and Medicare regulations.

Without access to video, Protection & Advocacy System would have to rely on ‘inconsistent’ and ‘vague’ incident reports, ‘inaccurate and misleading’ observation logs, and inaccurate witness statements when investigating patient treatment, the lawsuit said.

Other recent incidents captured on video included a patient with slurred speech and weakness soon after a Friday head injury. 

The patient was not taken to an emergency room until the following Monday, according to the patients’ rights group.

A separate incident involved another patient who nearly choked to death on food, as well as a patient who was given another patient’s medication.

Earlier this year, Protection & Advocacy System Inc. argued in a lawsuit against Hospital Director Paul Mullenax and Department of Health Director Stefan Johansson that hospital officials were impeding the organization’s access to patients. The case is pending.