$1M for Psychiatrist's Malpractice

New Jersey Law Journal
September 22, 2003

Pichardo v. Altar: A man left paralyzed from the waist down from jumping off a building in an attempted suicide settled his malpractice claim against his psychiatrist for $1 million on Sept. 4.

Antonin Pichardo struck the deal with Dr. Raquel Attara, who practiced in Hoboken but is now retired, at a conference before Hudson County Judge Maurice Giallipoli.

Pichardo, of Jersey City, was 44 on June 8, 1997, when he threw himself off the roof of a four-story building he owned in North Bergen, two days after being discharged from Christ Hospital in Jersey City with Attara's approval.

Attara had been treating Pichardo's bipolar disorder for 15 years and Pichardo had tried to kill himself with drug overdoses in 1990 and earlier in 1997, says his lawyer, Gerald Baker.

On May 13. 1997, he was admitted to the hospital after he told Attara he was considering slashing himself with a knife, says Baker, a partner with Hoboken's Baker, Pedersen & Robbins.

When Attara told Pichardo on June 2. 1997, he was to be released in two days, Pichardo pleaded to remain because he did not feel ready to leave, says Baker.

On June 6, the day Pichardo was discharged, the Mount Carmel Guild in Jersey City evaluated him for an outpatient program and found him suicidal. Two days later, he jumped. Attara's May 5. 1998, treatment notes show he told her it was a suicide attempt, according to Baker.

As a result of the jump. Pichardo had a rod inserted in his spine, a laminectomy, skin grafts and other procedures, and underwent almost three months of rehabilitation.

The suit alleged negligent discharge from the hospital and negligent failure to manage Pichardo's medications.

His level of lithium, an antidepressant, fell below the therapeutic level during the May 1997 hospitalization but Attara failed to ascertain it was back at the right level before discharge, says Baker. And Pichardo was switched from the anti-depressant Serzone to Effexor on May 28 and was discharged before there was sufficient time to determine whether the new medication was effective, adds Baker.

The settlement represents Attara's full policy with Princeton Insurance, says Baker. Attara's lawyer, I. Blakely Johnstone III, a partner with Westfield's Johnstone Skok Loughlin & Lane, did not return a call seeking comment.

By Mary P. Gallagher