Posted on 08/16/2026 6:58:59 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Robert Carradine’s family is suing the regents of the University of California, alleging that a series of failures at a UCLA psychiatric facility contributed to the actor’s death.
On Jan. 16, Carradine, 71, checked himself into UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital due to ongoing suicidal thoughts, The Wrap reported.
“Robert walked into UCLA’s locked psychiatric unit ‘feeling relieved to be hospitalized’ and hoped that ‘additional inpatient treatment would’ reduce his anxiety,” according to a legal complaint filed Aug. 7. “He was happy to be in a ‘locked, structured environment’ where he could rest – one that felt ‘containing and helpful.’”
Instead, according to the suit, facility workers let Carradine walk into a room without confiscating his belt, which contradicted UCLA’s policy that listed “belts and belt buckles” as contraband.
The suit claimed it was standard procedure for psychiatric hospitals to remove belts, as well as shoelaces and drawstrings, which could be used to “cause self-harm or hanging.” They said workers broke a “cardinal rule” by letting him keep his belt.
Hospital staff then left him inside a room with a rolling bedside table, which was “not a standard piece of furniture in the locked psych unit” and should have been removed before he was placed there, the filing said.
The next day, Carradine was found unresponsive and in cardiac arrest in his hospital room after attempting to take his own life.
“He suffered an anoxic brain injury and spent the next five weeks in the intensive care unit,” the lawsuit stated.
He was admitted to the ICU, where his condition continued to deteriorate and he never regained consciousness. He died five weeks later on Feb. 23. His manner of death was ruled a suicide.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
suicide runs in families ... and it is not genetics.
The common treatment for psychiatric patients appears to be putting them on the streets... That’s what they’re doing where I live. You walk out your door and they’re all out there ‘looning out’ out in public. The old standard of keeping them housed ended decades ago.
Not if he was in there because of suicidal thoughts—that's what they were supposed to treat!
I had a college mate who lost it and was sent to a psych ward, where they took away all potential items of self-harm. The nurse found her dead in the morning, age 40. She had taken the plastic bag liner from the wastebasket, tied it over her head and suffocated to death.
Psych hospitals are supposed to know how desperate these patients feel.
The system failed him.
They had a responsibility.
Bipolar is genetic
You are totally correct.
Nursing walks through at least twice a shift to correct deficiencies.
Thank u
Taking the belt from someone suicidal at psych hospital is sensible you’d think
Great actor
Great acting family (and directing)
Pity
I’m sorry for anyone anxiety laden enough to kill themselves
Nobody wants to feel that way
Freepers guard empathy or sympathy (same word today basically though misused) like they’d guard saffron in the spice cabinet
Ever take med school courses...?
If not genetics—then what?
One of the hospitals I worked at was a psych hospital. I had zero to do with patients. But I did spend a lot of time with Docs and nurses. I learned about how nothing in the place could jut out from the wall more than an inch or less.
I also learned that if someone was really determined to kill themselves, they would find a way.
It was the kind of “adult education” that never comes in handy at parties.
No, people who want to kill themselves will find a way. Where the hospital is liable is if they did not follow established procedures. Having anyone in there with a belt is a big no-no. Also, any thing that could have been used to anchor the “rope/belt” goes against established procedures in mental health facilities.
The hospital will settle out of court…and get visits by the state inspectors.
That happened in the 1980s.
We really need to get the real nuts off the streets. They are a danger to everyone. But housing them is expensive and getting a place like that staffed would be a nightmare. Your tax dollars would reflect that. I am not sure the country is in the mood for that.
I think we should get some sort of housing for them…but I am probably in the minority.
Which is more costly letting them to continue to kill, rape &/destroy property or confining them?
He was failed at the most basic levels. About ten years ago when asked about raises for staff at a local psych hospital the ceo stated that the staff were now competing with the entire world and that wages were not rising...they would be importing.
FR is the least empathetic of forums.
Unless it is a dog or cat.
At least he died doing something he loved ...
Oh, wait ... that was his brother ...
they are continually rehoused. They blow out of it.
They need to be institutionalized and on long term or lifelong holds.
Apparently the current policy is to kill them with neglect as they are used to overcome cities, terrify and kill citizens and provide work and government funds to graft to organizations.
I expect the 1930s German solution to be initiated when leftists are done using them.
Agree!
In “The Cowboys,” he utters my favorite line of all time: (spinning the cylinder of his revolver) he says “We’re gonna finish a job.”
This after having dispatched the gang led by Bruce Dern.
The base of socialized medicine Brits tap on wood.
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