A ZOLOFT CASE OUT OF INDIANA. IN PARAGRAPH 30, IT STATES THAT JUDY KIRBY WAS TAKING ZOLOFT AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. SHE LEFT A SUICIDE NOTE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Defense to cite driver's mental state
Lawyer for Judy Kirby says it will be an issue at murder trial in highway deaths of 7 people.
By Rob Schneider
The Indianapolis Star
Last updated 01:00 AM, EST, Saturday, April 22, 2000
The state-of-mind of a woman suffering from depression before a deadly head-on collision in Morgan County will "absolutely" be an issue in her murder trial, her lawyer said Friday.
Judy Kirby's mental state was mentioned in a court document when a doctor revealed the reason that Kirby had been hospitalized at St. Francis Hospital three weeks before the March 25 accident, which killed seven people. Kirby was hyperventilating when she appeared at the hospital and was experiencing "emotional trauma," the probable cause affidavit in her arrest stated.
Kirby -- who has cared for 10 children, including eight of her own -- had become depressed during her most recent pregnancy and then deteriorated after the birth of that child in October 1999, her family said.
A doctor told police that Kirby had experienced a "major depressive episode with postpartum onset, with psychotic features resolved."
Officials at St. Francis would not discuss Kirby's case.
Such a diagnosis usually means the patient is suffering from hallucinations and delusions besides depression, said Dr. Alan Schmetzer, assistant chair for education in the psychiatry department at Indiana University's School of Medicine. The word "resolved" is generally used to indicate the symptoms have improved to the point that one can no longer tell the person is still depressed, Schmetzer said.
Schmetzer was not involved in treating Kirby.
St. Francis officials wanted to keep Kirby hospitalized, but she checked herself out after three days.
Facing murder charges
Kirby of Indianapolis was charged with murder in connection with the crash on Ind. 67 near Martinsville. Police say that Kirby drove north in the southbound lanes of the highway for nearly two miles. Carrying four of her children, her car passed numerous "wrong way" signs along the way.
A police accident reconstructionist estimated she was traveling at least 60 mph to 65 mph when she struck a van, killing the children in her car and three members of a Martinsville family in the van.
A teen-age friend of the Martinsville family was injured.
The extent of Kirby's ailments go far beyond what the prosecutor has examined, said David R. Hennessy, Kirby's lawyer.
"This prosecution is a sign of the times," Hennessy said. "We've become a society that whenever there is an inexplicable tragedy of great proportions, we have to criminalize it."
"When I grew up, society responded to these kind of tragedies with much more of a Christian heart," he added.
Morgan County Prosecutor Steven P. Sonnega was not surprised by the notion that Kirby' metal state might become an issue.
But, he called Hennessy's remarks "very offensive."
"I think the system we have is a system of respect for human life," Sonnega said.
Hennessy also contends that his client is being deprived her medication and medical treatment, but the Morgan County Sheriff's Department denied the allegation.
While not able to discuss Kirby's case, St. Francis Hospital did make available Dr. Stephen Dunlop, medical director of behavioral health services at the hospital.
Women suffering from postpartum depression could face a wide range of symptoms depending upon the severity of the problem, he noted. Those range from feeling tearful and sad to incoherence and bizarre hallucinations in extreme cases.
"The assumption is the postpartum period (after a birth) represents a trigger that, in a vulnerable individual, sets off an episode that they probably also carried programming for in some sense of the word," he said.
Fairly common
About 18 percent to 21 percent of women in the United States suffer from postpartum depression, said Annette Smick, a psychiatrist in Winona, Minn., who specializes in postpartum depression.
But postpartum psychosis is much more severe and represents a psychiatric emergency that requires hospitalization.
Such a condition occurs in one to two births in 1,000. In such cases symptoms range from disorganized thought, disorientation, agitation and hallucinations, where a patient might hear voices commanding them to do things. Records do not indicate specifically which symptoms Kirby was suffering.
Infanticide is a risk in mothers with postpartum psychosis, Smick said. In the United States there are about 80 to 120 cases of mothers killing their children a year attributed to the malady.
While severe, postpartum psychosis, as with other categories of postpartum problems, can be treated.
Typically, a patient receives a combination of medication and counseling. In some cases, shock therapy is used.
"Depressions can get better," Schmetzer said. The average length of time for depressions is about eight months; but with treatment, the time period where patients pose a danger of hurting themselves or others can be shortened by a considerable margin.
Kirby's mother, Helen Walker, said after her daughter left St. Francis she was given a "paper" to take to a community mental health center. But, Walker said, she did not know if Kirby ever visited the center.
Around this time, Kirby received a prescription for Zoloft, an anti-depressant.
Cause for concern
Kirby's family has said that, after she left the hospital, they kept watch over her.
Recovery can be a risky time, Schmetzer noted. "One of the dangerous times with a depression is when people begin to improve because they get enough energy now to do things, but all their symptoms aren't gone yet."
"They can look normal on the outside because they are closing in on their old selves, but they are not yet their old selves," he said.
Kirby's family continues to portray her as a loving mother, who lived for her children and home. Witnesses to the crash, though told police of a woman who was seemingly was able to function. One witness described Kirby as driving with both hands on the wheel and expressionless.
"The thing about (depression) is people can do things purposefully and yet it's not really them," Schmetzer said.
"Depression is an illness, and, just like if I had a broken leg, it would affect my ability to walk. A depression really affects a person's ability to think accurately and clearly and to feel the way they would ordinarily feel about situations," he said.
The question, he said, becomes:, "Was this the person or a disease that caused them to do this?"
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