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DA: Jamaica Plain hospital never reported what turned into a fatal patient-on-patient attack

Hameen Edwards, 41, was ordered held without bail at his arraignment today on charges he killed a fellow patient at Arbor Hospital by punching him in the head in 2015, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Edwards was indicted Friday on a charge of second-degree murder.

Edwards and John Duggie, 51, of Framingham, were roommates at the psychiatric hospital on July 2, 2015, when a staff member head a loud noise coming from their room, the DA's office says:

A staff member entered the room and observed Edwards striking Duggie before raising his hands and saying, “I’m sorry. Kill me.” The room was in disarray and Duggie was suffering from a serious head injury. Edwards allegedly made statements at the scene indicating that he had an “altercation” with Duggie and fell on him.

Arbor Hospital staff called 911 for medical assistance and Duggie was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He remained on life support until Aug. 2, 2015, when he was taken off life support and died of his injuries. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death of complications from blunt force injuries a homicide.

Although staff called 911 for an ambulance, nobody from the hospital alerted Boston Police or the DA's office that Duggie's injuries came from a possible attack, the DA's office reports.

The DA's office says it launched an investigation into Duggie's death only after receiving a report from a state agency.

In June, the Globe reported on repeated issues at psychiatric hospitals in Massachusetts hospitals run by Arbour.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Why are the people who witnessed this and failed to report it to police not up on charges themselves, and ditto for the hospital administrators, if they encouraged this 'see-no-evil' BS, either explicitly or implicitly?

Asking seriously - are healthcare providers legally shielded in some way from reporting (alleged) crimes committed by their charges?

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I think I would have rather been in old school Med State than an Arbour hospital.

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Hameen

Cue somebody describing this as an "international incident" in 3...2...1...

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