OREM, Utah — Two employees of a care center in Orem have each been charged with one count of aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult following a patient's suicide in 2022.
The Utah Attorney General's Office filed the charges, which are third-degree felonies, against Hidden Hollow Care Center employees Amy Lauritzen and Laetitia Odunze last week.
According to the charges, both Lauritzen and Odunze were aware of a patient's schizophrenia diagnosis and prior attempts at suicide before the man was killed after being hit by a vehicle in the center's parking lot in April 2022.
As Hidden Hollow's Director of Nursing, Lauritzen was allegedly aware the patient's doctor had prescribed him a daily dose of Clozapine to treat his schizophrenia.
When the patient arrived at the center in January, he did not have any of the medication on him. Rather than scheduling medical evaluations for the man, the AG's office said Lauritzen "administered Clozapine to [the patient] using a stash of discontinued medication saved from a prior patient(s)," according to court documents.
Lauritzen allegedly gave the patient the borrowed medication through April 1 when it began to run out, and then failed to give the man a full Clozapine dosage for the next three days. The patient then received no medication from April 4 through his death on April 11.
"On April 7, 2022, [Lauritzen] documented in a treatment note that [the patient] had been out of his schizophrenia medications for over a week. The following week [the patient] exhibited uncontrolled behavior including hitting staff and residents, streaking outside, and laying down in the road and screaming that he wanted to die. Defendant denied witnessing any suicide attempts, but in the nursing assessment dated March 28, 2022, noted that, “[The patient] has told me he wants to die but has not attempted anything as far as I am aware,” court documents read.
At 1 p.m. on April 11, the patient was struck and killed by a vehicle driving by a Hidden Hollow employee. The Orem Police Department investigated the incident and ruled the man's death a suicide.
The attorney general's office said as Director of Nursing, Lauritzen, along with Odunze, who was a Hidden Hollow administrator, were in position to care for the man, but allowed his "health to be endangered by mismanaging medications, failing to obtain necessary medical evaluations, and failing to properly follow up on suicidal behaviors."
