A Washington state family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Spokane hospital in May after their 12-year-old daughter died by suicide while admitted to the hospital under supposed 24-hour supervision. The hospital fired 15 nurses in connection with the incident in the wake of media coverage of the suicide.
Sarah June Niyimbona, 12, had started to experience symptoms of severe depression in September 2024, according to the lawsuit. In January, her mother admitted her to Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital for “inpatient psychiatric services related to her depression, self-harm, and suicide attempts.”
As part of her admission, a health care worker was assigned to her room for round-the-clock monitoring, the lawsuit said. Both the worker and a video surveillance system were removed before April 13, the day Niyimbona exited her hospital room, walked a quarter of a mile to the fourth floor of a parking garage and jumped off of it. With severe lower extremity injuries and having “experienced fear, pain, and suffering” in her final moments, the girl died two hours later, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed on May 9 in the Superior Court of Washington for Spokane County, alleged that the hospital and nurses responsible for watching Niyimbona were negligent in their care and directly to blame for her death. It claimed unspecified damages for her pain and suffering, funeral expenses and other losses…