Death Behind the Walls.mov

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• published: 09 Feb 2012
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For more than ten minutes Troy Geske, who was strapped face down on a table in "prone restraint" struggled to breathe. His suffocation in an isolated room behind the walls of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo represented a dramatic example of the deaths and cover up of four patient deaths exposed by a three year KMGH-TV investigation. In Geske's case the Colorado Attorney General had petitioned a district court to suppress video of the death, even trying to withhold it from the family. Using confidential sources and helping the family obtain private records, KMGH-TV investigative reporter John Ferrugia, in a series of reports, proved the hospital staff failed to follow safety procedures for such restraints. Working with inside sources, Ferrugia obtained the video and made it public, with the family's blessing, the night before the court was to rule on the state objection. Our investigation has resulted in the dismissal of the hospital director, produced dramatic changes in policies and procedures for safety and care of patients, caused a ban on "prone restraint" in state human services facilities and by state contractors, and prompted the state legislature to fund 50 additional staff members for the mental institute. For the first time ever in Colorado a grand jury held the state's largest mental hospital responsible for the death of a patient. The grand jury was empanelled as a result of the KMGH-TV investigation that has included more than 40 stories about the mental health system in Colorado.