The next morning, April 14, Clyburn was found dead.. According to the coroner's report, his body was lying face up on a hardwood floor, with vomit trailing from his mouth.
The coroner's report said his death was caused by an overdose of multiple drugs.
According to a state report, a mental health worker did not conduct the 15-minute checks and falsified the patient's record to suggest otherwise. Although the worker wrote that Clyburn was sleeping at 7:15 a.m., a nurse reported at 7:20 a.m. that Clyburn was "unarousable, cold & stiff to touch with a blue face," suggesting that he had been dead for some time.
In a plan submitted to the state on the April deaths, Las Encinas said it fired the mental health worker involved.
The hospital also issued new rules to enhance monitoring of patients and visitors. For example, it mandated frequent checks of routine vital signs and searches of visitors' bags. Las Encinas has had similar problems in the past, state records show. In October 2004, an 18-year-old patient died after being placed in leg restraints for two days, instead of 3 1/2 hours as ordered. Two weeks later, a patient was found dead after drowning himself in a bathtub. The incidents caused the federal government to threaten to pull funding, but the issues were deemed resolved.
The most recent events have already affected the hospital's relationship with an insurer. The mental health subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, the nation's second largest health insurer, has suspended referrals there until it completes its own probe, said spokesman Brad Lotterman.
Some family members remain distraught and outraged.
Taras Otus said the hospital has not followed up with his family since they were informed of his brother's death. He described Otus as a gregarious struggling actor who worked as an extra and on the set of the television show "Ripley's Believe It or Not." Among his possessions was a note from host Dean Cain, thanking him for ensuring Cain was well-lighted during filming.
Otus, a UCLA graduate, had his first manic episode about seven or eight years ago, his brother said. He was stable for a while, but last summer he started to use Ecstasy and crack, then became suicidal.
At the hospital he had been in a unit where he was on suicide watch, then was transferred into a unit that treats substance abuse, the brother said.
