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Rose Doyle sought out a lawyer on the same day that a judge declared that she was mentally ill. |
Not a week after Rose Doyle's heart problems landed her in Massachusetts General Hospital in November 2006, the hospital's attorney went to Suffolk Probate Court with a petition asking the court to declare Doyle mentally ill and to appoint a guardian to make all her decisions for her.
The lawyer, William S. Carroll, wrote in the court application that Doyle "suffers cognitive decline." The required medical certification, by Dr. Stephen Nicolson, a Mass. General psychiatrist, contained just four handwritten lines about her mental state.
"On exam, Ms. Doyle was calm, cooperative, and friendly," Nicolson wrote. "However, she had very little understanding of her medical problems; unable to discuss any of the diagnoses mentioned above. She was unable to explain why she takes any of her medicines." For those reasons, Nicolson concluded, "Ms. Doyle does not have capacity to make decisions regarding her medical care, including disposition decisions."
At the Dec. 1 court hearing, Carroll added some fresh evidence. "She's not as calm as originally indicated," he told Judge E. Chouteau Merrill. According to a transcript of the hearing, which lasted 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the judge did not ask a question before deciding that Doyle was mentally ill.
That very day, Doyle displayed sufficient mental acuity to seek out a lawyer, Elizabeth E. Crimmins, at Greater Boston Legal Services.
"She was very angry at the guardianship and angry at being confined to the hospital," Crimmins recalled. "She was pretty with it. This was not someone who needed a guardian to make decisions for her - on any level."
Two weeks later, after the hospital transferred Doyle - involuntarily, Crimmins said - to a Newton nursing home for a three-month stay, Crimmins readied a court case. In a series of documents filed with the court, Crimmins challenged the speed, superficiality, and legality of the process. She also presented a detailed independent psychiatric finding that Doyle was competent.
On May 8, 2007, Merrill reversed herself, voiding the guardianship and restoring Doyle's freedom. Joan Kenney, a spokeswoman for the state courts, said Merrill would not comment on the case.
In November, heart disease claimed Doyle's life.
Mass. General officials, however, said they believe the initial decision was correct and was arrived at after extensive clinical consultation. Carroll said he does his own inquiry to ensure that guardianship is the proper step. The hospital, he said, "has to act on what we see at the moment. We do not know what's going to happen three to six months later."
Hospital officials, citing privacy issues, declined to discuss the case in detail.
Dr. Kenneth R. Barney, a psychiatrist who later determined that Doyle was competent, wrote that he had reviewed Mass. General's records and could find no reason for the decision that she was mentally ill. In the records, he wrote, "she was described as cognitively intact, quite communicative, and nonproblematical psychologically." Barney said the hospital may have judged her incompetent because she rejected their recommendation that she have heart surgery.
If Doyle had had a lawyer before the Dec. 1 hearing, Crimmins said last week, "this never would have happened to her."
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
