A medical malpractice lawsuit filed by the family of a South Carolina psychiatric patient who committed suicide in 2015 ended with a $3.5 million jury verdict, according to WMBF.

Within 30 minutes of being discharged from Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Horry County, SC, 26-year-old Matthew Scheer “was seen running into the Atlantic Ocean during a violent storm and drowned,” WMBF reports.

Scheer’s father brought Scheer to the hospital on Oct. 2, 2015. The young man was having an acute psychotic episode for unknown reasons, according to WPDE.

Reports indicated that Scheer admitted he’d stopped taking an anticonvulsive medication for a seizure disorder several days earlier. At the time of admission, he appeared to be suffering from paranoid delusions of having his food poisoned and thus appeared malnourished.

Scheer was admitted to the hospital and a psychiatric evaluation was ordered but purportedly not promptly completed. The family’s medical malpractice lawsuit says that evaluation never happened.

Scheer’s father left late in the evening  to get a good night’s sleep and to retrieve clothing and toiletries his son would need during his inpatient stay. After his father left the premises, Scheer became hostile and aggressive with the staff, according to news reports.

He wanted to leave the hospital and the doctor overseeing his care at the time agreed to Scheer’s discharge, against medical advice. The doctor allegedly made no effort to contact next of kin—chiefly Scheer’s father—because she believed her hands were tied by federal privacy laws.

At the time of Matthew’s discharge, Hurricane Joaquin, a category 4 storm with maximum wind speeds of 155 mph, was in full bore along the coastlines of the southeastern United States.  The storm caused at least 34 deaths, as indicated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Minutes after being released, Scheer walked into the storm-disturbed ocean and drowned.

Employee HIPPA Education

Jurors found Grand Strand Regional Medical Center and physician group Southern Myrtle Inpatient Services, LLC (SMIS) to be responsible for Scheer’s death.  SMIS had little to no training regarding when it is legally acceptable to release private health information concerning a patient, according to jurors in the medical malpractice trial.

There’s an exception to healthcare privacy laws when there is a clear public health danger or emergency affecting the life and safety of an individual or society, according to Healthcare Compliance Pros.

In the case of an actively suicidal individual such as Matthew Scheer, the treating physician would have been justified in reaching out to his father by phone, according to the family’s counsel and WPDE.