(5-11-18) Pat and Jerry Wood insist their adult son’s death could – and should – have been prevented. Instead, on this coming Mother’s Day weekend, the family will be holding a private memorial for Brian Patrick Wood. Their account is one of the most disturbing examples that I have read about barriers to treatment – not only in Virginia – but across our nation. (Their son’s death happened in Loudoun County. I recently posted a blog from a distraught father who complained sheriff’s office deputies arrested his son after he’d called them for help. The sheriff responded in a follow up blog.)
Our Son’s Preventible Death – An email to Pete Earley from Pat and Jerry Wood
Dear Pete,
On March 22, our son, Brian, took his own life. My husband and I very strongly believe that Brian’s suicide could have been prevented if the first group of medical responders and sheriff officers who we called had acted appropriately.
What follows is a reconstruction of events to the best of our recollection and a question as to why officers who responded to our 911 call did not exercise their authority to use an ECO (Ref: Emergency Custody Order that allows a person to be taken to a hospital against their will in Virginia) to assist our son who clearly did not have the clarity of thought to act in his own interest.
As Brian became increasingly delusional and paranoid over a period of months, he called the (Loudoun) sheriff non-emergency number several times.
Brian had called them when he lived in an apartment in Leesburg and continued to do so when he moved to our house in Sterling. Officers had come to our house in Sterling to investigate imagined break-ins and “suspicious people” loitering around the house at least twice or three times in the 2-3 weeks prior to Brian’s suicide.
Deputy Suggests Family Get ECO On Their Own
Deputy P. Brick (#3198) responded to these calls several times and became acquainted with Brian and his mental health status. Because Brian did not present himself as being a danger to himself or others during these calls, Deputy Brick told us that he could not take Brian in for a mental health evaluation and we agreed with him at that time. The last time Brian asked officers to come to the house, Deputy Brick suggested trying to get an ECO ourselves from the magistrate on the grounds of “inability to care for self”. Please note that Brian had been hospitalized in Loudoun County several times over a 7 year period and had a history of being taken in by the sheriff’s office through emergency custody orders issued on our behalf by the magistrate. He had also been taken for mental health evaluations several times directly by the sheriff’s officers because of complaints by neighbors or, in one case, because of a domestic assault.
On March 22, we were occupied most of the day in talking to and supervising the upgrading of our home security system. Because of Brian’s paranoia, we thought it might help him feel more secure if we activated an old security system that already existed in the house when we purchased it but that we had never used. We had a technician from the security company (Vintage) in our house from approximately 11:30 AM until approximately 5:00 PM.
We were aware that our son was not feeling well and had been vomiting but we didn’t really start paying attention to his condition until after the technician left at 5:00 PM. Our son had locked himself into an upstairs bathroom and had water turned on. We assume he hoped the sound of water would camouflage the sound of vomiting. We were able to open the door with a screw driver and found our son crouched on the bathroom floor vomiting into the toilet. His eyes were glazed and he could barely stand up to walk to the adjoining bedroom. He continued to vomit into a bucket as he sat on the bed.
When we saw his condition, we thought he had perhaps taken a street drug or overdosed on one of his psychiatric medications. We asked him and he denied it saying that he had food poisoning and would be fine. We could immediately tell that it was not food poisoning. His voice was very high pitched and abnormal and his eyes and ability to walk were also not normal.
We decided to call 911. His vomit was black and looked as though it could potentially have had blood in it although we were not sure of this.
When the responders to our 911 call arrived, it must have been about 5:45-6:00. Two sheriff officers accompanied the medical responders. Our recollection is that there were 3 or 4 medical responders. We learned from one of the sheriff’s officers officers that Officer Brick was not available because he himself was sick that night. We were upstairs with my son so we did not see what kind of vehicle the medical responders arrived in. We do not know if it was an ambulance or fire truck.
An older man (I think he had white or gray hair) seemed to be in charge of the medical personnel. He asked my son if he could take his vital signs and my son refused. He asked if they could take him to the emergency room and my son also refused. The two sheriff’s officers noted to each other (I overheard them) that my son had a red mark on his neck where he had pulled off a chain that he always wore. The older medical person informed us that he could do nothing since my son was refusing treatment. He asked me to try to convince my son to be hospitalized but I was also unsuccessful.
It was clear to me that my son was very ill and delusional.
I do not believe that the medical people ever examined the contents of the bucket my son continued to vomit into in their presence. Shortly thereafter, they all left. They were probably in the house about 15 minutes total.
To us at least, it was obvious that my son was not in a mental condition where he could make an informed decision about his own health. He was beyond understanding what anyone was saying to him or urging him to do. The question of whether he had taken some self-harming drug was never addressed. The officers certainly must have been aware of his mental health record from past visits. The red mark on his neck that indicated self-harming behavior was ignored.
We know that police and sheriff officers are trained to take people in distress into custody and we cannot understand why this was not at least considered. We did ask them to please take Brian to a hospital for medical treatment. They did not exercise their authority to issue an ECO, despite the fact that, clearly, our son was not able to make a rational decision at the time. With hind sight, we think our son was already well along the road to endeavoring to end his life.
Our questions are:
-Did the officers not understand their authority to act in a crisis?
-Had the officers completed the training that is required for this type of situation?
-Did they consider one or more of the three criteria (danger to self, danger to others, inability to care for self) that allows them to act without the consent of an adult?
-The officers seemed to be taking direction from the medical people rather than making an independent assessment
After the medical responders and the officers left, my husband and I debated for about 30 minutes as to what to do. My husband left the house about 6:30-6:45 to go to Leesburg to the magistrate to try to obtain an ECO in order to get my son both medical and mental health attention.
While my husband raced to Leesburg to get an ECO, my son stumbled down the stairs into our office where I was sitting near the bottom of the stairway.
He sat down and a few minutes later had a convulsion. His whole body went rigid and his eyes rolled back. He had never before had a convulsion. 
I immediately grabbed my cell phone and called 911 again. My son then walked into the living room and fell onto the living room couch continuing to vomit into a bucket. He had another massive convulsion that ended up with his head on the living room floor and his feet pointed at the ceiling. He clearly had no control over his body.
Eventually he was able to sit up again. I was still on the phone with 911 when I saw a knife poking out from one of his pants pockets. I asked him what that knife was for. He started having another convulsion and as his arms and body were becoming rigid again, he pulled the knife out of his pocket and slit his throat. I told the 911 person what had happened and begged her to get someone to the house quickly. She told me to get towels to try to compress the wound on his throat. I ran to the kitchen to get towels but my son pushed me away when I returned. Running back to get more towels, I turned around and found him standing in the kitchen looking through the trash can. I can only guess that he was looking for the knife.
The 911 lady asked me if there were any weapons in the house and I replied that there were none but only kitchen knives. When I said that, my son’s attention went to the drawer where we keep the kitchen knives and he started moving toward that drawer.
This whole time, he was bleeding profusely from the wound in his neck.
I stood in front of the drawer and saw that he was getting weak and could not push me aside from the drawer. At that time, an officer burst through the kitchen door from the garage and started wrestling with my son trying to handcuff him. My son struggled against being handcuffed and asked the officer why he was doing that. The officer must have seen the blood pouring from the gaping wound on my son’s neck. The officer replied that he was trying to save his life.
After several minutes, the officer was able to handcuff him. He then threw my son down on the dining room floor. It was only at that point medical personnel came into the house. By then it was too late since my son had lost so much blood. Medical personnel worked on him for 20-30 minutes with no success. We believe he died on the dining room floor.
He was taken to Reston Hospital in an ambulance. My husband arrived back from Leesburg and we rushed to the hospital where we sat in a waiting room for about 45 minutes. A doctor came out and told us that they were not able to save Brian because he had lost too much blood and that they had not been able to get a heart beat after he arrived at the hospital.
We so wish that the first call to 911 had resulted in getting my son medical treatment and then mental health treatment.
The Medical Examiner’s Office has put on the death certificate that the “immediate cause of death” is “pending.” We have asked for, but have not yet received, the results of any toxicology screening results. With the constant vomiting and then the convulsions, it is possible that some drug or overdose of medication was involved.
We would hope that in the future, the mental health of the ill person and his/her ability to make informed and rational decisions be taken into consideration by medical responders and that they defer to sheriff’s officers regarding a possible ECO. The possibility of an attempt at suicide must also be taken very seriously and into account when deciding whether or not to leave the scene. An opportunity to save my son’s life was missed and resulted, in our opinion, in a tragedy that could have been avoided. Our family is devastated by his loss. He was 38 years old.
We give our permission for this story to be shared as you think might be helpful. The goal is to prevent this kind of heart breaking outcome for another family.
Thank you,
Pat and Jerry Wood
(I am grateful to the Woods for sharing this horrific story. Only by disclosing these tragedies can we put a human face on problems that we encounter trying to help someone who is seriously mentally ill. I deeply regret the loss of their son but admire their courage in wishing to help prevent further preventible deaths.)
Washington Post obituary.
Brian Patrick Wood
August 27, 1979 – March 22, 2018
In memory of the free, precious and kind spirit who lit up the world with his sweet smile and gave his love, compassion and a helping hand to so many. May you be wandering now in green and peaceful places with all strife, struggle and pain gone. May the sound of guitars guide your way. You leave a huge hole in our hearts that can never be filled. We will miss you forever. Any donations in Brian’s memory can be made to NAMI. No services.
Mom, Dad, Kevin and Terence
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