Va. health staff failed Irvo Otieno as he suffocated, experts say

Originally published by the Washington Post on July 26, 2024.

Virginia authorities moved quickly to investigate after Irvo Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, was suffocated on the floor of a state psychiatric hospital in March 2023. By the following week, seven officers and three hospital orderlies who piled on him had been charged with second-degree murder, and that same month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) promised an “aggressive transformation” of the behavioral health-care system that experts say failed Otieno.

But a year later, the criminal case has fractured, and little public scrutiny has been given to the actions of the clinical staff, including doctors and nurses, at Virginia’s Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, where Otieno died. No clinical staff members at the psychiatric facility have been charged; the orderlies were “special management technicians,” a position that focuses on security and requires no medical training beyond knowledge of CPR, according to a job listing. Meanwhile, an investigation into potential abuse and neglect related to Otieno’s care is on hold pending the results of the criminal case, which now involves just two officers and an orderly facing downgraded charges of involuntary manslaughter.

A new analysis by The Washington Post of nearly two hours of surveillance footage inside and outside the hospital, along with interviews with 10 medical and use-of-force experts, identifies serious shortcomings in Otieno’s care by clinical personnel as officers and hospital workers pinned him down for more than 11 minutes. Staffers failed to monitor Otieno’s condition, nor did they attempt to safeguard his life as he was suffocated, according to medical experts and video footage. After Otieno appeared limp, a nurse did not check for signs of life but injected him with a sedating mix of drugs that were later listed in court filings, according to video and experts, who described the action as medically unsound. When staff eventually attempted CPR, experts said, they performed it incorrectly.

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