Death illustrates an 'inadequacy of training'

Trained as a concert pianist, David Jackson was a gifted musician and "a very good man," says Lonzy Edwards Sr. of Macon, an attorney for Jackson's family. "But, unfortunately, he had some problems." Among them: chronic paranoid schizophrenia that caused a series of psychotic episodes. The last one occurred April 27, 2003, when police in Macon observed him grazing on a lawn, arguing with a statue and screaming amid the traffic on a busy street. He was admitted to Central State Hospital later that day. The next morning, Jackson attacked a hospital worker, records show, and staff members responded in force. Four of them held Jackson, 53, facedown on the floor for at least five minutes before realizing he had stopped breathing, state reports indicate. Jackson's death illustrates an "inadequacy of training" of hospital workers dealing with erratic patients, says Edwards. "They're not equipped to handle it and the result is somebody gets hurt." The lawyer obtained a $153,991 settlement from the state for Jackson's family.

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William Gregory Williamson poses with his sister Brenda Betancourt Williamson on Dec. 2, 2003, at Central State Hospital. Williamson died July 6, 2004.

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Brother's demise 'a total shock'

When William Gregory Williamson died at Central State Hospital in July 2004, "his death came as a total shock," says his sister, Brenda Betancourt of Warner Robins. "We had no idea he was ill." Neither, apparently, did the hospital staff. Even though Williamson, 36, had a documented history of drinking excessive amounts of water, hospital workers did not restrict his intake. As a result, he drank so much that a sodium deficiency killed him, according to his medical files. Two years later, Betancourt's feelings about Central State remain conflicted. "My brother could be difficult," she says. "Years of institutionalization coarsened him. He was talkative and challenging. Getting him to do what he needed to do took patience. I thought the daytime shift at the hospital was very caring and well-supervised. I'm not so certain about the overnight shift."

Different versions of how sisters died

State hospitals were the only homes Gloria and Dorothy Edenfield ever knew. Institutionalized since they were toddlers in Jesup in the 1940s, both "seemed to do very well" in recent years at Southwestern State Hospital, says Linda Hires, their younger sister. Hires didn't imagine anything out of the ordinary when her sisters died nine months apart — Gloria, 63, in December 2003 and Dorothy, 60, the following September. The hospital told Hires both died of pneumonia. In fact, according to death certificates and state reports, Gloria died after aspirating the contents of her stomach into her lungs, and Dorothy choked to death from a foreign object in her respiratory tract. Although they spent their lives together in institutions, they had lived in separate rooms for years, Hires says, and Dorothy seemed not even to know Gloria had died.

Nearly blind, but allowed to wander

The world was becoming progressively darker for Donald Moore. In and out of institutions for years as he battled mental illness, Moore, 49, also had a degenerative disease that was slowly taking away his eyesight. Although he was nearly blind, the staff at Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital allowed him to wander from room to room, says his brother, Garry Moore of Cartersville. That freedom, his brother says, indulged Donald Moore's fixation with swallowing found objects, particularly coins. In August 2004, he swallowed several coins, some of which lodged in his esophagus. He died a short time later in a Rome hospital's emergency room.

Violent patient found dead

Cassandra Key was just 24, but by the time she came to Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital in November 2004, she had established a long history of violent outbursts, drastic mood swings and attempts at suicide. Two weeks into her hospitalization, staff members couldn't control Key's outbursts, so they forcibly sedated her and sent her to bed, a state report later said. Workers found Key's body in her bed early the next afternoon. A medical examiner said Key had experienced "acute and chronic aspiration" that filled her lungs with her stomach contents — a condition that heavy sedation can provoke.

Patient left alone chokes to death

Jimmy Stephens wasn't allowed to eat with other patients at Central State Hospital; he had a history of choking, and would snatch food from others and quickly stuff it in his mouth. But when he entered Central State's on-campus medical clinic, no one told the staff there about his problems. On the morning of Jan. 15, 2004, a hospital worker served Stephens breakfast in bed — and then left him alone. It was a fatal error. Stephens, 46, was not wearing his dentures, a medical examiner later determined, and apparently stuffed his entire breakfast into his mouth. The cause of death was listed as asphyxia due to choking.

Former staff writer Joe Geshwiler contributed reporting for these articles.