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Leslie Deardoff went into menopause in 2020 and what followed over the next two years was a mental health crisis so severe that it ended with her permanently blind in both eyes. A hospital she trusted is now at the center of a lawsuit that is currently headed to trial. Deardoff and her husband Christopher have sued Stamford Hospital in Connecticut for medical negligence, claiming a series of missed warning signs and institutional failures led directly to her injuries.
Deardoff’s mental health began to decline in 2020.
According to Daily Mail, which obtained the court documents, Deardoff reportedly began to struggle with her mental health in 2020 when she went through menopause and the pandemic. In November 2021, she was admitted for inpatient treatment at Stamford Hospital after a medication overdose, which was her first suicide attempt, per the complaint. She was discharged following that stay.
On January 13, 2022, Deardoff returned to Stamford Hospital after a second suicide attempt and was admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit when she was “at one of her lowest moments,” her lawyers note.
Documents show that at that time, Deardoff “could no longer care for herself and relied entirely on the mental health professionals who she and Christopher believed could be trusted during this crisis.”
Staff allegedly ignored a series of troubling signs.
What the lawsuit describes next is a timeline of missed signals across several hours on January 12 and 13, 2022, which Deardoff’s family points to blame from the hospital.
According to the lawsuit, around 7 p.m. on January 12, a psychiatric technician noted that Deardoff appeared withdrawn and was spending extensive periods of time alone in the bathroom. Around the same time, a nurse observed blood around Deardoff’s mouth and nose, but she did not investigate or complete a self-harm assessment, according the the lawsuit. Instead, the bleeding was dismissed as having come from an “eyebrow scratch,” the lawsuit notes, per Daily Mail.
Two hours later, a second nurse documented that Deardoff had slightly swollen and bloodshot eyes, the filing says. At that time, a physician was notified, the filing says, but medical staff did not increase monitoring for Deardoff or make any changes to her treatment plan.
It’s also alleged that Deardoff was told she would not be getting out of the hospital or the psychiatric unit in the near future, which, her lawyers claim, caused Deardoff to spiral.
On January 13, just after midnight, it’s reported that Deardoff harmed both of her eyes with a plastic fork she had been given during dinnertime, according to the lawsuit. The hospital staff didn’t see the incident occur, and were alerted to her injuries when she walked to the nurse’s station just before 1 a.m. bleeding from both eyes and saying she could not see.
The lawsuit accuses the hospital of systemic failure.
According to the Daily Mail, the complaint claims Deardoff’s injuries were caused by a “myriad of missed warning signs, systems failures, and a culture of carelessness.” The lawsuit accuses the hospital of failing to conduct the required 15-minute safety checks and failing to implement a one-to-one observational protocol “required in light of her two suicide attempts, her serious diagnoses, her lack of insight, and her impulsive behavior.”
The lawsuit also alleges the hospital didn’t have any policies in place to track the distribution and return of eating utensils, and staff didn’t report or confirm that Deardoff’s fork had been returned after the meal.
In August 2024, Stamford Hospital and Stamford Health, Inc. offered to settle the case for $15 million, but it wasn’t accepted. The reason the settlement was declined was not publicly disclosed, but the lawsuit is now set to go before a jury.
Responding to the lawsuit, lawyers for the hospital filed a special defense arguing that Deardoff’s injuries were caused as a result of her own doing. Stamford Health told the Daily Mail: “Stamford Health is committed to providing safe, high-quality care to all patients. As this is the subject of ongoing litigation, we are unable to comment on this specific matter.”
The damage from the incident has left Deardoff permanently blind in both eyes. The trial is set to take place at Bridgeport Superior Court, with jury selection starting June 25.
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