A 75-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran fatally shot himself in the chest while a patient at a Veterans Affairs hospital, after warning psychiatrists and social workers multiple times that he had access to a gun and was considering suicide, according to a $37.5 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by the man’s grieving family.
In the suit, which was filed Tuesday in Chicago federal court and reviewed by The Independent, Roy Fred Giddens, Jr.’s son Christopher – the executor of his father’s estate – blames the devastating turn of events on the physicians, social workers, and nursing staff tasked with his care.
Two New Year’s Eves ago, Giddens, on his third stay in five months at Chicago’s Jesse Brown VA Medical Center after a stroke and at least one heart attack, “expressed suicidal ideations overnight to an unidentified registered nurse,” the family’s complaint contends. That same day, a VA doctor met with Giddens, who told him “that he sometimes felt like shooting himself because of his ongoing illness,” it says.
“On December 31, 2023, while a resident and under the care and treatment of the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Roy shot himself in the chest with a firearm,” the complaint states. “On December 31, 2023, Roy died as a result of the self-inflicted gunshot.”
Attorney Daniel Goldfaden, who is representing Giddens’s three sons and two daughters, called the situation “absolutely tragic.”
“It did not need to happen,” Goldfaden told The Independent. “It was completely avoidable.”
Giddens was a Vietnam vet who returned to the U.S. with severe post-traumatic stress disorder that gave him nightmares and flashbacks, according to Goldfaden.
“He didn’t go to the VA to harm himself, he went to get medical care,” Goldfaden continued. “They knew for months he had been feeling this way, they documented those warnings, he had previously told his providers that he had a gun, and told them he had no desire to live. To have nothing done in response is completely unfathomable to me.”
The family was very close, and son Christopher, who had visited his dad in the hospital the day before he died, “was completely caught off guard by it,” according to Goldfaden. He said Christopher’s life has “been basically turned upside-down, and that he continues to deeply grieve his father.
“The fact that he’s had to endure this completely preventable tragedy makes it more difficult for him to come to terms with this and process it all,” Goldfaden said. “... Our veterans deserve better. This issue is prevalent, and we have a responsibility, and owe it to veterans across the spectrum, to help them get the care they need and deserve.”
In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, unadjusted suicide rates were highest among veterans between the ages of 18 and 34-years-old, followed by those aged 35 to 54. Veterans 75 and older had the lowest suicide rate overall, according to VA data.
A VA spokesperson said in an email Wednesday that the department “doesn’t typically comment on pending litigation.”
Giddens, who became a cab driver upon his return from Vietnam, had been in and out of VA hospitals for several years, with a history of cardiac issues, according to a Chicago Sun-Times profile published two weeks after his death.
The complaint against the U.S. government lays out a timeline beginning on August 16, 2023, when Giddens went to the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center to get treated.
During the admission process, a psychiatrist met with Giddens, noting that after a hospitalization in May, Giddens had expressed “suicidal thoughts [about] using a gun to shoot himself in his head,” and that he had “access to a locked firearm in his apartment,” the complaint states.
On December 1, 2023, Giddens was again admitted to the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, according to the complaint. Three days later, after Giddens claimed he was continuing to have suicidal ideations, it says a VA psychiatrist recommended a 1:1 sitter to watch him.
Giddens was discharged, but returned on December 18, 2023, the complaint goes on. Upon admission, Giddens told a VA psychiatrist that he “had thoughts of shooting himself in the chest,” according to the complaint. On December 24, however, Giddens was sent home, the complaint says.
Five days later, on December 29, 2023, Giddens was re-admitted to the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, thinking he was having another heart attack, his brother Donald told the Sun-Times last year.
“He called me the next day to tell me that he had a conversation with the doctor, and the doctor had given him some really bad news,” Donald said. “He told me at that point that he really didn’t feel that he was going to make it. He had this sense of doom and gloom, and I assured him that, upon discharge, we would get another opinion.”
On December 30, 2023, a VA social worker conducted an assessment on Giddens, and on December 31, a doctor noted that Giddens had spoken to an overnight nurse about wanting to take his own life, the family’s complaint states. It says a second VA doctor who met with Giddens also wrote that his “ongoing illness” was making him suicidal.
That evening, a nurse treating another patient in Giddens’s room heard a gunshot, according to a police report cited by the Sun-Times. She turned and saw Giddens sitting in a chair, with a gun in his hand and a single gunshot wound to the chest, the report said. As Giddens put the gun down on a hospital tray, he said he no longer wanted to live, the report stated. Giddens was rushed to a different hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m., according to the Sun-Times.
Goldfaden said he had no idea how Giddens managed to sneak the gun into the hospital, and told The Independent he considers the circumstances of the case to be “egregious.”
“He had previously told his providers that he had a gun, told them he had no desire to live, then to again complain of these suicidal thoughts the morning before he took his own life and to have nothing done in response? I was shocked,” Goldfaden said.
VA hospital staff failed to apply the “knowledge, skill, and care ordinarily used” by “a reasonably careful physician, licensed social worker, nurse and/or other healthcare professionals” when a patient speaks about dying by suicide, according to the family’s complaint.
Among other things, it lists each step at which a mental health intervention should have taken place, claims Giddens should have been transferred to a psychiatric unit upon expressing ongoing suicidal ideation, and says the VA “[c]arelessly and negligently allowed Roy to be left unsupervised” on the day he died. The complaint alleges hospital workers never coordinated consistent outpatient treatment for Giddens upon his past discharges, didn’t get the gun removed from Giddens’ home after he informed them he owned one, and neglected to check Giddens for a weapon upon his final admission to the facility.
Giddens shot himself and died a “direct and proximate result of the[se] failures of care and the negligent acts,” the complaint states.
“All of Roy’s next of kin suffered injuries as a result of his death, including the loss of companionship, society, grief and sorrow,” it concludes.
The Giddenses are seeking $37.5 million on two causes of action: $12.5 million for common law negligence, and $25 million for wrongful death.
“I think the family wants to prevent this from happening in the future,” Goldfaden told The Independent, “They want some answers as to how it happened, and some accountability.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you
