Ohty Sanchez Case Summary

Otty Sanchez had been hearing voices since age 5 and was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. She was able to live with these voices and some mild paranoia for years. She finished high school and, in 2003, met Scott Buchholz, the father of her son. The two began a dysfunctional, on-again, off-again relationship. Within the next 5 years, Sanchez’s behavior would become more erratic and unstable. Throughout the summer of 2008, she received free outpatient treatment from a clinic, including regular counseling sessions and antipsychotic medication and reported feeling much better. But in early September 2008, the Center for Health Care Services could no longer afford to provide treatment unless she paid or qualified for a government benefit.

Fights and arguments continued to plague the relationship between Sanchez and Buchholz and on July 20, she left him and descended into crisis. Emotional distress often exacerbates postpartum depression and Sanchez soon found herself in the emergency room at Metropolitan Methodist, asking for help. During this visit, Sanchez met with a counselor at the clinic that ushered her through her pregnancy. Upon speaking with the counselor, she stated that she had delusional, paranoid thoughts that other women were trying to breastfeed her baby and hearing voices which said that others would like to take her baby away. She also reported visual images of other children’s faces transposed on her baby’s face. The counselor called an ambulance to rush Sanchez to the hospital because she needed an immediate psychiatric evaluation. The hospital employed a standard for admission to its psych unit that boiled down to a simple question: do you feel suicidal or homicidal? To that, she responded “no”. Just 11 minutes after her psych evaluation ender, she was discharged from the hospital with the name of a clinic she could contact for outpatient services, though she was given no address or contact information. She never made an appointment. On the afternoon of July 25, just 12 hours before the attack, Sanchez visited Buchholz

But as many as one-fifth suffer from the more serious post-partum depression, which includes symptoms like despair and failing to eat or sleep. Post-natal psychosis is far rarer, affecting only about one in 1,000 women. Women with post-natal psychosis have delusions, frequently involving religious symbols and a desire to harm their newborn. The most common part of the psychosis is the delusional thinking. The risk of developing post-natal psychosis is 50% or higher for women with schizophrenia who are not taking medication. Providing the proper resources and programs, and also paying attention to early warning signs may help to prevent tragedies, such as these, from happening