How much could a psychicatrist who works for a hospital be sued for malpractice?

by liber(the poet);

Say That a man was depressed, and he was sent to a hospital, and the psychicatrist said that he was fine and let him go, which he was not. And then he ended up killing himself. How much could the wife sue the hospital for malpractice for? And If it was up to the judge, how much do you think it would be worth? The man had 2 very young children, so they were deprived of having a relationship with his father. (Happening to one of my friends)

Cybi
That isn't malpractice.

little78lucky
Doesn't sound like malpractice to me, unless the man clearly stated he would kill himself the psychiatrist had to work on what the man said.

serendipity
There was no malpractice. A psychiatrist can provide remedies (which are never guaranteed to work in the first place) but they're not ultimately responsible for altering a patient's judgment. That's impossible to do.

crash.override
Being depressed isn't the same thing as being suicidal. If the man was depressed at the time of seeing the psychiatrist but was NOT suicidal at that time, then there is no malpractice here. Psychiatrists can't predict future behavior.

Artemis Agrotera
The facts that you have provided don't prove malpractice. The only way the psychiatrist and/or hospital would have committed any type of an act of malpractice would be if the depressed man told the psychiatrist that he was depressed AND that he intended to kill himself the moment he was released from the hospital.

If this man told the psychiatrist all of the "right" things - then the psychiatrist would not have been legally allowed to hold him. An involuntary psych hold is only allowed when the patient represent a clear and immediate danger to himself or others. A psychiatrist has not engaged in malpractice because they didn't have a crystal ball and wasn't able to predict the future.

pearlmar
Depends upon the state. Most of them have caps of $ 500,000 for a doctor, one million for a hospital.

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