Suit Claims Disorientation From Religious Fast Treated As Mental Illness

Courthouse News Service reports this week on a lawsuit filed in Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, Ohio by a Pentecostal Christian "self-published spiritual author" who claims she was involuntarily committed to a hospital psychiatric ward when she became confused and disoriented on the 15th day of a "Biblical fast." She has sued the hospital and a doctor, claiming that he and the hospital staff "characterized [her] religious devotion as evidence of mental instability, making repeated references to her 'religious preoccupation' and noting [her] Bible reading and audible praying as evidence [of] mental illness." She seeks punitive damages for false arrest and violation of patient rights. The case is Doe v. St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, (filed 3/10/2014).