ducklite said:
Considering she had recently been released from a mental hospital and was by everyone's admission "stable", I doubt the standards for an involuntary would have been met the morning that she killed the children. Like I said in a previous post, schizophrenic psychosis can come on quickly and without warning.
Anne
Here is some info from a couple of sites
..
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,218445-4,00.html
Jurors took notes as Rusty testified about his life with Andrea, whom he had met when they were both 25 years old and living in the same apartment complex in Houston. He told them how their family had grown, and how they had moved from a house in suburbia to a camping trailer to a bus converted into a motor home, where Andrea focused on raising the toddlers. After the birth of their fourth child, Luke, in 1999, Andrea tried twice to commit suicide. She was hospitalized both times and was diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis.
The couple and their four sons moved from the bus into their house on Beachcomber Lane in a Houston suburb. She recovered while using Haldol, but eventually stopped taking the medication. Against the advice of her psychiatrist, Andrea soon became pregnant again with their fifth child, Mary. Within months, following the death of her ailing father, her psychosis returned. Instead of taking her back to the same doctor who'd treated her before, Rusty told jurors that he and Andrea went to the Devereux-Texas Treatment Network, where Mohammed Saeed became Andrea's psychiatrist. Rusty testified that he never knew that Andrea had visions and voices; he said he never knew she had considered killing the children. Neither did Dr. Saeed, even though the delusions could have been found in medical records from 1999. Andrea would not talk or eat.
After only slight improvement, Andrea was released from Devereux. A month later, she had another episode. Rusty took her back to Devereux. Again, she was released. Dr. Saeed reluctantly prescribed Haldol, the same drug that worked in a drug cocktail for her in 1999. But after a few weeks, he took her off the drug, citing his concerns about side effects. (For more on Saeed's response, see our previous examination of the Yates trial.) Though Andrea's condition seemed to be worsening two days before the drownings, when her husband drove her to Saeed's office, Rusty testified, the doctor refused to try Haldol longer or return her to the hospital. Rusty was frustrated, he told the jury, and he didn't know what else to do.
From the crime Library
When Andrea's father died a few months later, she stopped functioning. She wouldn't feed the baby, she became malnourished herself, and she drifted into a private world. Rusty forced her back into treatment at Devereux Texas Treatment Network in April under yet another doctor, Ellen Albritton, who put her on antidepressants.
Then psychiatrist Mohammed Saeed took over her care. He received scanty medical records from her previous treatment and no information from her, so he put Andrea on Risperdol, a new drug, rather than Haldol. He had not heard about hallucinations, and he observed no psychosis himself, so he felt Haldol was unnecessary. However, Suzy Spencer indicates that the notes kept on Andrea were disorganized and scribbled over someone else's chart. The descriptions of Andrea's condition, which was near catatonia, were vague. Saeed discharged Andrea into her husband's care, with a suggestion for partial hospitalization, and gave her a two-week prescription.
Rusty's mother came from Tennessee to help out with the children, but Andrea wound up back in the hospital. When she started to eat and shower, she was sent home, with the proviso that she continue outpatient therapy. One day she filled the tub and her mother-in-law asked why. She responded, "In case I need it."
It seemed a strange statement, and no one knew how to interpret it, so they let it pass. They did not see the forewarning except in hindsight.
Yet Rusty was worried, so he took Andrea back to the doctor, telling him that she was not doing well. According to Roche, Saeed reportedly assured him that Andrea did not need shock treatment or Haldol, but Spencer says that he did suggest shock treatments and did prescribe Haldol. Andrea was shuffled back and forth, and early in June, Dr. Saeed took her off the antipsychotic medication.
Then on June 18, Rusty was back. Andrea was having problems. Saeed supposedly told Andrea to "think positive thoughts," and to see a psychologist for therapy. However, he says that he did warn Rusty that she should not be left alone. Rusty told author Suzy Spencer that on that day Saeed had cut Andrea's medicationnow it was Effexor--too drastically and he had protested, but the doctor had reassured him it was "fine." Rusty had filled the prescription, still confused as to why the doctor thought that an obviously sick woman was doing okay. That was two days before the fatal incident.
Andrea sat at home during those days in a near-catatonic state, and to Rusty she seemed nervous. However, he did not think that she was a danger to the children, so on June 20 he left her alone. Since his mother was coming, he felt sure everything would be fine. Andrea was eating cereal out of a box, which was uncharacteristic of her, but her demeanor seemed okay. He didn't think a few minutes alone would be a problem.
How wrong he was.
