Právo: Mental hospital patient strangles herself in caged bed

Dobrany, West Bohemia, Jan 25 (CTK) - A Czech patient of an asylum for the mentally ill has hung herself in a cage bed, daily Pravo writes yesterday.

"She tore a part of the net in the upper corner and pushed her head through the opening in which she hung herself," police spokesman Josef Aubrecht said, adding that the guilt by anyone else could be ruled out.

The use of net and cage beds became the focus of public attention in 2004 when Joanne Rowling, British author of the Harry Potter series, wrote to the Czech president and prime minister, asking them to stop using cage beds in Czech health care facilities.

The woman, aged 51, committed the suicide on Friday, only a few hours after she was placed in the cage bed, director of the asylum, Vladislav Zizka, is quoted as saying by the paper.

"On Friday morning, she had a breakfast along with the rest of the patients. However, then her health condition worsened," Zizka said.

"She started to be restive and the doctor on duty decided to place her in the cage bed for preventative reasons," he added.

Zizka said the woman's previous behaviour had had signs of self-inflicted injuries.

"However, the patient was not in such a condition that would require a permanent monitoring," Zizka said.

"There was a camera above her bed and the situation could be monitored from the nurses' room. She health personnel could constantly watch and always see what was going on," said Zizka, adding that he had ordered a thorough check due to the case.

After Rowling showed interest in the issue of caged beds in the mid-2000s, the Czech Labour and Social Affairs Ministry banned cage and net beds in social care institutes as of 2007.

In psychiatric facilities, nevertheless, the use of such beds is determined by the Health Ministry.

A similar case occurred in the mental asylum in Prague-Bohnice a few years ago. A patient, aged 25, choked with her own excrement in a net bed there.