Suit contends lithium could have prevented veteran's suicide

VIRGINIA BEACH

The suicide of a former Navy chief petty officer could have been prevented with proper medication, family members contend.

The wife of Scott Alan Starr filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court claiming that her husband committed suicide because his psychiatrist, Daniel Broadhead, took him off lithium three weeks before he shot himself at his Virginia Beach home Aug. 18, 2008.

"If this man had not been taken off lithium, there's every probability that he'd be alive and well today," Norfolk attorney John Basilone, who represents Starr's estate, said in a phone interview.

The $2.15 million lawsuit also names Dominion Psychiatric Associates, where Broadhead was working when he treated Starr, according to the lawsuit.

Starr began receiving treatment at Dominion in September 2007, shortly after he retired from the Navy after a 27-year career, Basilone said. Starr had worked as senior enlisted adviser at the Naval Surface Warfare Center and returned there as a civilian employee for the Department of Defense.

He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was placed on lithium after a suicide attempt in the summer of 2008, Basilone said. The medication is widely considered the only known drug that prevents suicide in bipolar patients, the lawyer said.

About three weeks before Starr killed himself, Basilone contends that Broadhead took him off the medication and deviated from the standard of medical care.

Richmond attorney Ken Roeber, who represents Dominion, said Broadhead stopped working for the practice in late 2008. His license was in good standing at that time, Roeber said.

He declined comment on the lawsuit because he had not seen it.

Broadhead could not be reached by telephone because his number is not published. He did not respond to a note seeking comment that was left at his Virginia Beach home Friday.

Broadhead has had problems with his medical licensure, according to documents from medical boards in Virginia and North Carolina. His license was revoked in Virginia in November 2009, according to the documents.

Broadhead was cited for lewd and offensive conduct with one patient during an office visit on Aug. 27, 2008.

The Virginia state board also found that he had a sexual relationship with another patient from September 2007 to October 2008, disclosed personal information about himself and provided a Valium tablet to the patient before each sexual encounter outside the office, telling her that she "needed to relax," according to state medical board documents.

In November 2008, Broadhead voluntarily surrendered his license to practice medicine in North Carolina, after the board of medicine there found problems with his record keeping and authorization of prescription drugs.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com