Otieno family: Henrico hospital covers up 'inactions' leading to death
The family of a Henrico County man who died while in custody last March at Central State Hospital has clapped back at the medical center that initially treated him, accusing it of deflecting blame in the death “for its own inactions.”
In a statement released Sunday by their attorney, Irvo Noel Otieno’s family claimed that he was virtually ignored during his six-hour stay at HCA Parham Doctors’ Hospital. They say Otieno – who was in the middle of a mental-health crisis at the time – was seen only briefly by a doctor and given just enough medication to calm him for one hour.
“An HCA physician only saw Irvo briefly and appears to have disappeared when the brief effects of medication dissipated,” the statement said. “Even though Irvo was brought to HCA under an Emergency Custody Order for in-crisis mental-health care, Irvo never saw a psychiatrist.
“What did HCA do for Irvo for the other five hours when Irvo was shackled to his bed rails?”
Otieno was 28 years old and suffering from mental-health illness when he died March 6, 2023, in an intake unit at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County. An autopsy indicated cause of death as suffocation after seven Henrico County deputies and three CSH security guards pinned him to the floor for more than 11 minutes.
All 10 deputies and security guards were indicted in Dinwiddie County on second-degree murder charges stemming from Otieno’s death. The prosecution later dropped charges against two of the security guards, and trials for the remaining defendants are scheduled to begin in June 2024.
A state investigation into HCA released its findings last week stating that Parham Doctors Hospital did not provide adequate care for Otieno when Henrico Police brought him there March 3. Officers had gone to the residence to pick up Otieno on suspicion of neighborhood larcenies and found him amid a mental-health episode. Otieno’s mother claimed her requests to take him to a closer hospital for evaluation were ignored, and he wound up being taken across the county to PDH on Parham Road.
The officers said Otieno had become violent during his time in PDH so they decided to take him to Henrico County Jail West. Three days later, Henrico deputies transferred him to Central State but claimed they had to physically suppress him after he began resisting them in the intake unit.
However, surveillance video from CSH showed a shackled, shoeless and quite catatonic Otieno being led into the room by deputies and held against a cushioned chair on the floor. At one moment, Otieno appeared to flinch, and that was when the deputies and security guards rolled him over and used their bodies to pin him down.
In its response to the investigation, HCA said it attempted to properly stabilize Otieno but was unable to because “our care was interrupted by the intervention of Henrico County Police officers.” Since that time, the company said it had developed a “comprehensive plan” for working with law enforcement to discharge a patient under mental duress.
The family’s statement released Sunday said the PDH mental-health center where he was taken appeared to be operating “not by a physician and nurses, but by its security officers, who, along with hospital staff, also impeded Irvo’s mother from seeing her son.
“HCA Parham Doctors’ Hospital seeks to deflect blame for its own inactions. HCA chides its own security officers for their actions but fails to acknowledge the passivity and timidity of its physician in directing care,” it continued. “Physicians and nurses are supposed to advocate for their patients, and not take direction from security officers with little to no healthcare training.”
The Otieno case has received widespread media coverage for its similarities to the 2020 case in Minneapolis when video showed George Floyd, a Black man, being pinned to a city street by a police officer using his knee across Floyd’s neck. Floyd, whose comment of “I can’t breathe” became a theme of nationwide protests against what demonstrators called racial inequality in the U.S. justice system.
Otieno’s advocates say his death also depicts inequality in mental-health treatments for Blacks and other minorities in the U.S. Among those backing the family are civil-rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton – who eulogized Otieno at a March 29 funeral service in Chesterfield County – and acclaimed civil-rights attorney Ben Crump. Crump and Virginia-based lawyer Mark Krudys are representing Otieno’s mother and brother.
Shortly after the state Department of Health released the findings of the HCA investigation, Florida-based Crump released his own statement.
“It is heartbreaking that in one of Irvo’s lowest moments, he was abandoned and left unstable by medical staff ... who are required by regulation to provide care and support to those who need it,” Crump’s statement read.
The case also is a cornerstone of legislation proposed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin for the 2024 Virginia General Assembly that starts Jan. 10. That legislation would allow for a family caregiver to be with a patient in medical crisis while they receive emergency care. Otieno’s mother said she was repeatedly denied access to her son even though he was calling for her.
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Otieno family: Henrico hospital covers up 'inactions' leading to death
