Cherry Hospital psychiatrist struck a mentally ill patient

From North Carolina's News & Observer Newspaper

A psychiatrist at a state mental hospital in Goldsboro is still on the job despite an internal investigation that concluded he hit a mentally ill teenager who has developmental disabilities.

Dr. Ralph Berg, 58, struck Ricky Luciano in the back during a tussle over a T-shirt at Cherry Hospital. The incident, which occurred April 28, was recorded on a hospital security camera.

Berg, reached at his home Friday, said he had been instructed not to comment about the case.

According to the hospital's internal investigative report, released at the behest of Luciano's family, Berg told hospital officials he was defending himself after Luciano, then 18, bit him on the forearm.

Even if Berg was attacked, a state law regarding the use of force in mental hospitals bars staff from retaliating with violence.

The assault was not reported to any law enforcement agency, including Cherry's internal police department.

A review of public files at the N.C. Medical Board gives no indication a complaint was filed against the doctor, who has been on the state payroll since 1999 and receives an annual salary of $187,681.

"He should have been fired," said Deborah Sargis, Luciano's mother. "I've been a nurse more than 20 years. Had I ever seen anything like that when I was working, I would have reported that doctor in a minute."

On the recording

The recording, which the state Department of Health and Human Services did not disclose until pressed by The News & Observer, shows Luciano standing in a hospital day room at 8:37 a.m. with his shirt off, snapping it at two staff members in front of a nurse's station.

Berg enters through a door and attempts to snatch the shirt from Luciano. The two tug at it, spinning around before Luciano appears to dip his head toward the doctor's hand. As the patient is bent over, Berg strikes him in the back, and Luciano collapses to the floor.

The doctor throws the shirt to the floor before grabbing it and leaving through the same door he entered. Luciano, who is schizophrenic and has an IQ of 58, is left sitting on the floor with his head bowed until the tape, as edited, ends.

The written report of the incident included in Luciano's medical file indicates he bit the doctor, who "pushed" the patient to make him release the bite.

A handwritten note that says "no injury to client" was crossed out and replaced with "Error. Reddened area L[eft] shoulder blade." The mark, which later darkened to purple, measured about 4 inches square.

Afterward, records indicate Luciano was given the maximum recommended dose of an anti-psychotic drug, along with anti-anxiety and mood-stabilizing drugs. When administered together, the drugs would have heavily sedated the patient.

An internal investigation was launched that day, after the incident was reported to one of the hospital's patient advocates. In an interview with Berg transcribed in the file, the doctor said he tried to grab the shirt only after Luciano snapped it at him.

"He locked his jaw into my arm," Berg is reported as saying. "As he was locked on me, I went to push him down, and he moved up a bit, and it wound up slapping him on the back. ... I feel badly that it went down like that, but I am going to stand by my guns that I didn't do anything wrong."

Nurses and lower-ranking employees at state hospitals are routinely fired if an abuse complaint is substantiated against them, and their names are placed on a blacklist that makes it difficult for them to find another job.

According to the investigative report, the Cherry officials who reviewed the complaint against Berg recommended that a supervisor "address how the intervention used was not appropriate and discuss how the situation could have been handled differently."