Mount Carmel Hospital authorities have been cleared of responsibility for the death of a Dutch woman who committed suicide while she was a patient there in 1989. 

The case was filed in 1993 in the Civil Court by the woman's husband and son.

They said that the woman had been forcibly admitted to Mount Carmel Hospital as a patient following a suicide attempt, when she overdosed on medication.

Shortly after her admission, the woman hanged herself in the hospital bathroom. 

Although it was clear that the woman had killed herself, her husband and son argued that her death could have been avoided had she been properly cared for by the hospital authorities. They asked the court to rule that hospital authorities were responsible for the woman's death and to pay them damages.

The court heard that the woman and her family had come to Malta on December 20, 1989.  Four days later, the husband discovered that his wife had taken an overdose of medication. He rushed her to St Luke's Hospital where her stomach was pumped. 

The husband told the hospital authorities that his wife suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and that in January 1985 she had killed another person and tried to commit suicide. 

The woman was deemed to be a danger to herself and to others and, as the psychiatric unit at St Luke's hospital was full, she was taken to Mount Carmel hospital for compulsory hospitalisation, with the consent of her husband and the doctor who had examined her.

Upon her arrival at Mount Carmel, the woman was examined by psychiatrist Joseph Spiteri in the presence of her husband and nurse Connie Magro.  The woman appeared to be calm and claimed to have no suicidal wishes. It did not result that she was delusional and she was conscious of her psychiatric problems.

Medics decided that the woman should be kept under observation, together with other patients, and that she would be administered medication later on, as she was just recovering from an overdose.

The woman's husband stayed with her until 4pm but then left to take care of his son, who was an infant at the time. 

The woman appeared to be calm, but after she was allowed to go to the bathroom she was found to have committed suicide by hanging herself.

Madam Justice Felice pointed out that the court-appointed medical expert had concluded that there was no management or medical negligence in what he described as an "unfortunate case".

The court added that the conclusions reached by psychiatrist Dr Spiteri had been supported by the examination carried out on the woman when she was admitted to hospital, and staff had not suspected that the woman was planning on committing suicide.

The court concluded that this tragic event had not been caused by negligence or incompetence by the defendants but was rather the result of the woman's mental state.

The case was dismissed.