Gwinnett County Man Files Medical Malpractice Lawsuit over Wife’s Murder
It's not the kind of case that Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers often come across. A Gwinnett County man has filed a lawsuit alleging medical malpractice against his son’s psychiatrist. The case has triggered debate over whether a criminal suspect's family is eligible for damages in a civil action.
The son, in this case, is mentally ill, and has been charged with stabbing his mother to death. In 2001, the son, Victor Bruscato began receiving treatment for a number of conditions, including violent tendencies, from Dr. Derrick Johnson in Gwinnett County. The treatment seemed to help Bruscato, and expert witnesses testified as much during the trial.
In May 2002 however, O'Brien eliminated at least two powerful medications from Bruscato’s medication program, because he believed that these could be contributing to the development of dangerous symptoms. Soon, Bruscato’s mental condition began to worsen. He suffered recurrent nightmares, and began hallucinating that the devil was ordering him to do bad things.
Things took a turn for the worse in August 2002, when he attacked his mother. He stabbed her seventy-two times, leaving her with fatal injuries. He was charged with murder, but has since been found incompetent to stand trial, and is currently in a mental institution.
His father, Vito filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. O'Brien. The lawsuit claimed that O'Brien's negligence caused his son’s condition to deteriorate, causing him to fly into a psychotic rage and kill his - the plaintiff’s- wife. The doctor argued that the lawsuit should not be allowed to proceed because of a law that prevents families of criminal suspects from profiting off wrongdoing. A judge ruled in his favor, but that decision was reversed by the Court Of Appeals. The Georgia Supreme Court is now considering the case.
