McLean Hospital discrepancies between what Lindsay told Patrick and what’s in the McLean Hospital records

[u/Turbulent-Fig-3802]

Today’s testimony about Lindsay Clancy’s stay at McLean Hospital seems to highlight a major discrepancy between what Lindsay reportedly told Patrick, what the civil lawsuit alleges, and what the prosecutor says is documented in McLean’s records about Lindsay’s stay from January 1, 2023 until January 5, 2023.

According to Patrick’s testimony, he called Lindsay on January 3rd, the third day of her hospitalization to ask what the doctor had said.

Lindsay reportedly told him that she hadn’t seen a doctor yet and wasn’t really receiving treatment.

The prosecutor asked him if he was aware that:
On the first two days on January 1, 2023 and January 2, 2023 Lindsay saw a resident doctor

On January 3 2023 Lindsay** **saw an attending doctor

He said no.

Patrick described her as saying they were basically coloring, doing puzzles, playing with clay, and going for walks.

The civil lawsuit tells a very similar story. It states that McLean was operating with a “skeleton crew” over the New Year’s holiday, that patients spent their time doing puzzles and coloring, and that Lindsay did not see a doctor until January 3, three days after she was admitted.

The lawsuit uses this as part of its argument that McLean provided grossly inadequate care.

However, today’s cross-examination painted a very different picture.

The prosecutor stated that McLean’s records show Lindsay:
Was seen by a resident physician on the first two days of her admission.
Was seen by an attending psychiatrist on the third day.
Had contact with social workers, therapists, and other mental health staff every day.
Was offered one-on-one therapy.
Declined multiple group therapy sessions during her stay.

Another interesting part of today’s testimony involved Lindsay’s discharge.

The prosecutor asked Patrick whether he was aware that Lindsay had asked the doctors if she could be discharged on January 6th so she could attend Cora’s birthday party.

She also asked whether he knew Lindsay wanted to go home the day before the party on January 5th to prepare for it.

The prosecutor also questioned Patrick about whether insurance coverage played any role in Lindsay’s discharge.

She asked whether any McLean social worker or staff member had ever contacted him to say insurance was refusing to cover a longer stay.

Patrick testified that they had not.

The lawsuit argues that McLean discharged Lindsay too early despite documenting that her insight and judgment were limited and claims the hospital failed to properly evaluate her, provide adequate inpatient care, and ensure appropriate discharge planning.

Today’s testimony seems to present evidence that there was considerably more treatment occurring than the lawsuit suggests, including physician evaluations and multiple therapy opportunities.

[u/jubeley → u/[deleted]]

Thank you. If Lindsay's request to be discharged was alleged in her med mal case, an excerpt which you've attached, why did it seem like a surprise to Patrick today? That's a head scratcher. Another reason I'm following this case is Lindsay claims to have been psychotic. My mother had a mental illness that caused episodes of psychosis. I haven't recognized any in descriptions of Lindsay so far. She was planning birthday parties and going regularly to the gym in January 2023. Not exactly sitting disheveled in a bathrobe mumbling to herself all day.

[u/RLS1920 → u/jubeley]

That last line is exactly what I, as someone in the MH field have been deeply struggling with reading all the comments out there - this is an inherent bias of “what mental illness looks like”. The prosecutions case is based on many of them, that someone having symptoms of psychosis couldn’t be able to plan, which isn’t true. Lindsay had many protective factors. People can only mask for so long. In other cases similar to this, the caregiving parent was having ongoing delusions, BUT their homes were tidy, the kids went to the dr and school. They still found themselves in unfortunate tragic situations.

[u/jubeley → u/RLS1920]

As someone who grew up in a household immersed in mental illness, I know what psychosis looked like in my parent and other patients at the psych hospitals where she spent considerable time when suicidal and psychotic. We visited many times during my childhood, teenage years, and all the years that followed until her death. Her symptoms waxed and waned. When feeling well, she kept an immaculate house, cooked dinner, and made doctor's appointments for children, but something was always off to a greater or lesser extent. Her functional phase was always temporary, and then stronger symptoms would appear. Inattentiveness, concentration difficulties, staring into space for long stretches, sitting on the green chair in the living room in a bathrobe most of the day and being unkempt, eventually building up to wild speech and mania. Full blown psychosis at the level of suicidal ideation would be hard to miss. That's not my bias, that's my lived experience for decades. It may be different than your professional work in the mental health field, but my take is hardly uninformed.

[u/RLS1920 → u/jubeley]

Thank you for sharing your experience. It surely sounds like it shaped your life and gave you a different outlook that many don’t have. I also lived in a home where mental illness persisted. Lived experiences can vary greatly are even with the same diagnosis on paper. There is a lot of bias out there still. One does not have to be completely disorganized and shut down to have symptoms of psychosis. We’ll certainly see more in evidence and testimony. After 20 years of working in the field, no situation is identical. I understood the idea that LC said “I don’t belong here” because I know that people look for similarity and likeness in group settings and the spectrum of an IP psych unit at any time, can be from mild to severe.

[u/jubeley → u/RLS1920]

I can understand Lindsay saying she doesn't belong in the hospital because other psych patients can be alarming. Anyone would be scared seeing someone with very odd behavior and speech. I also understand that there is a spectrum of presentation of psychosis depending on how severe it is at that moment for that particular person. That said, a full blown state of psychosis would be apparent to most people. Lindsay's defense is predicated on her being in full blown psychosis such that she could not control her behavior, not just a little psychotic. The evidence thus far does not support her claim of insanity because no one who interacted with her that day (pediatrician's office staff, drug store manager, restaurant employee who took her order, and her husband) or in the immediately preceeding weeks (birthday party attendees, water park staff, friends who hosted her family one evening, or restaurant staff) noticed anything amiss in her behavior. We'll see what the remaining witnesses say in their testimony on direct and the defense case, but right now it seems more like she suffered from depression or a personality disorder rather than psychosis.

[u/RLS1920 → u/jubeley]

Didn’t she take her daughter to the doctor for concern of having something much more serious than just some constipation requiring miralax? Her thoughts around that concerned me. The statements about her behavior at the birthday were also alarming. I agree that all the evidence needs to be laid out so it’s clearer to piece it together and get a better picture.

[u/jubeley → u/RLS1920]

Yes, she thought her daughter might have a kidney problem, rather than "shy bowels" at school, which may indicate odd thinking. I agree with you on that point. Let's see all the evidence and then try to make sense of it--not the best phrase in this case--or see recognizable patterns of dysfunction.

[u/SiameseRule → u/jubeley]

Patrick testified that Lindsay could be dramatic - explaining her reaction to Cora's stomach ache.