A PhD student died after jumping from a York bridge into the River Ouse less than an hour after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital.
Emily Miller, 23, who had serious mental-health problems including psychosis, was “fixated” on coronavirus and believed that her own blood could cure the virus.
The academically gifted post-graduate, who was studying at the University of York, had been sectioned several times between March 2019 and October 2020 due to ongoing psychological problems including depression and anxiety.
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She was last admitted to Foss Park Hospital in York on October 27 but was discharged three days later, an inquest heard. On October 30, following a discharge meeting with her mental-health team, Emily was let back into the community.
She had been “hostile and angry” at the meeting because she didn’t want to be discharged and left the hospital at about 11.20am.
Just after midday the same day, witnesses saw a young woman dressed in dark clothes climbing over the wall of Lendal Bridge and jump into the fast-flowing river.
She then floated along a strong current, not trying to swim to safety or call for help, in between two sets of moored river boats towards Ouse Bridge.
Found four weeks later
Tourists and day-trippers told the inquest they could only see Emily’s head above the tidal water and then she disappeared downriver.
She was found four weeks later by a boatman at Naburn Lock, near the marina. He called police and the body was confirmed to be that of the troubled student.
The inquest into Emily’s death was held at the Old Courthouse in Northallerton on Tuesday when her carers and medical experts gave evidence via video link. Her parents David and Hilary Dick were also in attendance remotely.
Clinical psychologist Dr Anne Hook said that Emily, whose parents live in Stockport, had last been sectioned on October 27 after threatening to jump off the bridge over the A64 near the university. She was coaxed down by police.
Dr Hook said Emily believed she was responsible for the coronavirus outbreak.
Emily was said to be “very anxious” about starting a new job but she had a masters from university and was described as “very bright”.
Short-term admissions
Emily was meant to join friend Ewan Murray, a maths teacher, and others on a Zoom call on 26 October, but didn’t attend.
He went to her home in Tang Hall Lane, but she wasn’t there. He found only a note to her therapist and some messages from a support worker.
Matthew Houghton, a nurse consultant at the psychiatric hospital, said that when Emily was first admitted in March 2020, at the start of the Covid outbreak, she was “quite frightened (and) scared”.
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She had been seeing a psychiatrist and an occupational therapist before being discharged in April last year, only to be re-admitted in May. She was discharged again a week later – part of a pattern of short-term admissions in the run-up to her death.
He said she was “unhappy” at the discharge meeting on 30 October and refused to take her medication with her, saying she had plenty at home.
“I think she was unhappy to be leaving (the hospital),” said Mr Houghton. “She was quite angry with the decision (to discharge her).”
Current extremely strong
Wiktoria Boguta, a student from Nottingham who was visiting York with friends, said she saw a woman climb over the wall of the bridge and jump into the river.
“I heard a loud splash,” she added.
“The current was extremely strong (and) she was moving really fast. She went between the boats and that’s when I lost sight of her.”
Emily’s body was found by yachtsman Gary Best at Naburn Lock on November 27 – some four weeks after she fell into the river.
He called police out and a river rescue team recovered Emily’s body, found among debris at the side of the river.
Mental-health nurse Alison McGrath said she was “concerned” at “how somebody could leave a hospital ward and end up in a river in such a short space of time” but added that Emily had received good care, uninterrupted by coronavirus.
She said Emily’s mental-health problems were “very complex” and that there were “advantages and disadvantages” to her staying in hospital.
“The steps that were taken at that time were right, although no one expected this outcome,” added Ms McGrath.
A pathologist said the cause of death was drowning.
Assistant coroner Jonathan Leach said Emily had a “loving and supporting family who were unaware of the extent of Emily’s mental-health issues because she had chosen not to share it with them”.
He noted that Emily had first been referred to mental health teams for anxiety at the age of 10 and that by November 2017 she was regularly seeing her GP which led to professional intervention and hospital admissions.
Noting that Emily had made “no effort to exit the river when there were opportunities to do so” and that she had “entered the river voluntarily”, he recorded a verdict of suicide.