Woman’s injuries severe after fall from cliff near Springfield Regional Medical Center

Patient left building while receiving mental health services.

A woman who left Springfield Regional Medical Center while receiving mental health services was severely injured Thursday after falling from a cliff near the hospital.

The Springfield Police Division received a call Thursday morning about a patient who ran out of the hospital and into the nearby woods after acting combatively, according to the police report. The woman was involuntarily admitted to the hospital Aug. 18 under a pink slip and could not be found by staff Thursday morning.

She later was spotted running north from the hospital, the police report stated.

A hospital security guard found the woman at the bottom of a cliff near railroad tracks. She had fallen roughly 40 feet from the cliff behind the hospital after climbing a fence 10 feet in front of the cliff, the police report stated.

“Due to the thick brush at the top of the cliff, it is unknown if she didn’t see the cliff,” the police report said.

The woman told responding emergency medical staff that she was experiencing extreme back pain and had no feeling in her legs. Police and responding emergency medical staff — with the help of railroad staff — were able to move her to a squad unit. She later was taken by CareFlight’s ground unit to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.

Miami Valley Hospital confirmed the woman is still a patient, but on Monday declined to share her condition.

“The safety, security and wellbeing of our patients, their families and our associates remains a top priority for Mercy Health,” said Jonathon Fauvie, spokesman for Mercy Health, which operates the Springfield Regional Medical Center.

The pink slip process that led to the woman’s hospitalization for mental health services is a way for police, doctors, psychologists, and other health care and law enforcement professionals to involuntary hospitalize someone by declaring the person “represents a risk of physical harm” to themselves or others, specifies the risk and states that the patient would benefit from hospital treatment. Ohio law states that anyone admitted by pink slip must be evaluated within 24 hours and cannot be held more than 72 hours without an affidavit filed, which necessitates a county probate court hearing within five days unless the court grants a continuance.

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