Greystone psychiatrist details dangers to patients

Medical bylaws were not followed, lawsuit alleges

The mass resignations were predicted and the shortage of psychiatrists imminent at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in 2018, allowing a perfect storm to form that placed staff members in danger and led to the fatal stabbing of a patient, the facility’s former chief of psychiatry says in a recently filed lawsuit.

The troubled hospital’s medical director, Dr. Evaristo Akerele, brought down morale at the 450-bed facility by failing to comply with medical bylaws and retaliating against those who tried to intervene, Dr. Margarita Gormus said in the complaint, filed in state Superior Court in Morris County. Gormus stepped down as chief after she said she was told by the administration to take actions that were illegal and dangerous to patients.

The lawsuit comes 15 months after the facility was placed under federal oversight following a court-approved settlement that called for improvements in medical and mental health care. The settlement, in response to a lawsuit filed by the Office of the Public Defender’s Division of Mental Health, requires the facility to address staffing issues, legal protection for patient and staff whistleblowers, keeping admissions under control and other obligations. An oversight committee must receive progress reports for at least a decade, the settlement said.

Gormus was in 2019 among eight employees including psychiatrists, a physician and the hospital’s director of fire safety to assert their claims on behalf of the public defender. Employees detailed what they called deplorable conditions that existed at Greystone at the time, with Gormus saying the conditions patients were forced to endure daily “are not suitable for human beings.”

“The best way to describe how things currently are is that the administration has turned Greystone more into a zoo than a hospital,” she testified.

Gormus, who is seeking unspecified damages, names the hospital; the New Jersey Department of Health, which oversees the state-run hospital; Akerele; then-hospital CEO Tomika Carter; James Frey, the hospital’s employee relations officer; and Dr. Ijeoma Hassan, who later served as chief of psychiatry.

Nancy Kearney, a spokesperson with the New Jersey Department of Health, said Tuesday that the department does not comment on lawsuits.

Retaliation, patient injuries

Gormus, of Wayne, began her employment at Greystone in 2014 and by 2018 was appointed chief of psychiatry, at which point she observed patients psychiatrically decompensate at an “unprecedented rate” and safety become “nonexistent,” she said.

Akerele failed to comply with hospital bylaws and was disrespectful to doctors and psychiatrists — actions that led to mass resignations by psychiatrists and patients and staff being placed in danger, the complaint states.

But Gormus said his disrespect also came in the form of inappropriate advances toward her. She said he began expressing personal feelings toward her, and made it quite obvious around other co-workers, the complaint states. He often instructed her to meet him after work and would show her photos of his girlfriends, sometimes putting his arm around her shoulders, Gormus said.

She said she rejected Akerele’s advances and the retaliation came soon after.

Akerele threatened to “punish” her when she reported violations of New Jersey labor laws and yelled “you are a drama queen, there is no emergency” during a meeting among staff to address the shortage of psychiatrists, the complaint states. Gormus was later assigned 52 patients, which she said was a violation of medical guidelines, and Akerele removed a psychiatry resident assigned to help her and ordered that she not have any in the future, she said.

In September 2018, a month after Gormus voluntarily stepped down as chief of psychiatry, she was caring for a patient who had one-on-one observation to prevent harm to herself or others. Akerele, without Gormus’ knowledge, ordered the observation to stop, and in less than an hour the patient swallowed six pieces of a broken boombox antenna and then had to recover for weeks at Morristown Medical Center, the complaint states.

Gormus said she later suffered burnout syndrome and her doctor recommended she take medical leave for four weeks. Upon her return, Gormus filed a complaint against Akerele for sexual harassment, but her claims were unsubstantiated.

In retaliation, Akerele assigned her a heavy caseload, including the hospital’s most violent, dangerous and difficult-to-manage patients, she said.

Gormus had under her care in December 2019 a patient she identified with the initials “S.S.” who was allegedly killed by another patient with the initials “R.D.” It is known through court records that Rashid Davis, a patient at Greystone, was charged with fatally stabbing fellow patient Shamir Segura, 25, of Hopatcong on Dec. 31, 2019.

Gormus said that in October 2019, Segura had oneto-one observation to protect him from violent patients. Administration granted her request that he be moved out of his unit in December 2019.

On the date of the scheduled transfer, Gormus was off work but Akerele changed the order and instead moved Segura to another unit. He also discontinued the one-to-one observation, Gormus claims.

The decision caused great confusion among doctors and staff, giving Davis an opportunity to take Segura into his room and allegedly kill him, the suit states.

Davis, of Union County, allegedly used an X-acto knife to stab Segura multiple times on New Year’s Eve. Davis was seen in the hallway covered in blood and, referring to his room, told staff members, “You’ll find him,” according to court records.

Hospital staff discovered Segura in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds to his neck, records show. Davis later told police that he “did something bad” and that he “threw it” in a trash bag. A search of a trash bag produced a knife handle with no blade.

Davis, who is facing murder and weapons offenses, has made several appearances in Superior Court, although his case has not yet been resolved. His defense attorney was seeking an evaluation after she said she would seek an insanity defense. Davis declined a 30year plea offer last February.

Gormus said when she returned to work after Segura’s death, she told Akerele that it could have been avoided had he listened to her and her clinical judgment.

The Office of the Public Defender filed its lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Health six months later. She agreed to make whistleblowing statements to the public defender, actions that were later addressed in the court’s settlement.

Gormus said she reported to the oversight committee just last summer that a staff member gave Carter, then the CEO, a brown envelope confiscated from a patient’s room that contained a balloon filled with a white powdery substance. Carter declared that the substance was sugar and flushed it down the toilet, despite Gormus’ objections that it should have been sent to a lab for testing, the suit states.

Gormus said she testified about the incident to the oversight committee. Shortly thereafter, Gormus was disciplined at Greystone and suspended without pay for 45 days, she said.

Greystone is now operating with a new interim CEO, Thomas Rosamilia, who assumed the head position on Feb. 3, Kearney said. A search for a permanent CEO is ongoing.

Carter left Greystone on Oct. 22, 2021, to pursue other opportunities, the spokeswoman confirmed.

State data for Greystone shows that the facility appears to be making strides with patient numbers, keeping them below 450, the maximum allowed under the settlement.

New admissions dropped steadily since 2018, from 426 in fiscal year 2018 to 193 in 2021. The total number of patients as of the end of January was 354.

Although state data for patient assaults is updated only through May 2021, reports show that the numbers have fallen over recent years, with five reported between January and May 2021, compared with about 20 in roughly the same time period in 2018.