Associated Press Published

Request to Dismiss W.Va. Psych Hospital Case Denied

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A request from the state Department of Health and Human Resources to throw out a 34-year-old psychiatric hospital case has been denied.

The Charleston Gazette reports the E.H. v. Matin case will continue after the request was denied in Kanawha County Circuit Court Tuesday by Judge Duke Bloom.

The case focuses on patient treatment at William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston and Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington. A judge says four patients at the hospitals in 1981 brought the case after they said they were being overly medicated.

The state Department of Health and Human Resources says the case should be dismissed because the patients listed as plaintiffs have since been released from the hospital.

The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.