Man in seclusion at mental hospital dies

RICHMOND, Va. - A severely mentally ill man who spent more than 15 years in seclusion at a Virginia psychiatric hospital has died, weeks after his family won a battle to have him moved closer to them.

Cesar Chumil, 59, died Oct. 19 in a northern Virginia mental health facility, his attorney, Alex Gulotta, said Tuesday.

Chumil's family fought for years to have him moved from Western State Hospital in Staunton, Va., where he had lived for more than a decade locked inside a specially built three-room dormitory-style suite because hospital officials said he was too unpredictably violent to live among the other patients.

He was moved to Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute on Sept. 30, where Gulotta said he lived in a two-room suite on a regular housing unit. His door was not locked.

"One of the things I promised him was that he wouldn't die in that room and he didn't, but just barely," Gulotta said.

Chumil died of complications from colon cancer. Surgeons took part of his colon in 2007 and thought he was cancer free, but it returned earlier this year, Gulotta said.

Chumil has been in and out of mental hospitals since 1978, when he was 28 and became violent toward family in his native Guatemala. He moved to the U.S. in 1980, and after several short hospital stays he was admitted in 1983 and never released.

Chumil moved to Western State Hospital in 1986 and he averaged 300 assaults against staff and another 100 against patients over each of the next seven years, according to records from a closed administrative hearing obtained by the AP.

To limit the amount of time he was spending in restraints or in a small seclusion cell because of the violent outbursts, hospital officials in 1993 built the three-room "limited containment suite," which had a separate bathroom, living area and a small outdoor area. He remained separated from the other patients, his meals pushed through a slot in a solid door that remained locked.

Chumil's family liked the idea in the beginning because Chumil had more freedom, but in 2007 filed a complaint because they said Chumil was not getting treatment in his native language and had no hopes of ever leaving the isolation room.

Chumil's family had been allowed to take him to Wal-Mart, the local mall and restaurants without hospital staff, but he was placed back in seclusion when he returned to the hospital.

Last summer, a state oversight committee ordered Chumil removed from seclusion, so the hospital moved all other patients off his ward and unlocked the door to his suite so he could go out into the day room. He remained alone, except for staff.

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Commissioner James Reinhard intervened and this spring worked out a move to the northern Virginia facility. Chumil's sickness delayed that move.

"The transfer was an extremely complex case that needed to be carefully planned and involved many partners so that it would be positive for the individual and those around him," department spokeswoman Meghan McGuire said.

Gulotta said he was glad Chumil got to spend those last few weeks with his family.

"I think it's incredibly sad," Gulotta said. "He really was a kind and humorous and intelligent man underneath a serious mental illness."