Paul Bertonazzi’s family seeks answers after his death from a severed neck while in the psychiatric ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital after being brought to the facility by Baltimore police

A 63-year-old man was found dead in the psychiatric ward of a prestigious hospital with a severed spine five days after police brought him to the facility. Now officers’ heartbroken family are demanding to know how their loved one went from patient to murder victim.

Paul Bertonazzi was taken to the hospital by police on Jan. 7 after they were called to a Burger King near the clinic to help with a man suffering from a “behavioral crisis,” Baltimore police said.

But shortly after arriving at the psychiatric ward, his daughter Brandy Delp received a call that her father had broken his neck and needed emergency surgery. She was told he was on a ventilator and would be a paraplegic even if the surgery was successful. Five days after he was admitted, the ventilator was turned off and Bertonazzi died.

Last week, 10 months after the incident, Maryland’s chief medical examiner ruled Bertonazzi’s death a homicide, saying he died of “trauma to the body.”

“We just don’t know at this point what happened, and we’re trying to figure that out,” said Amy Orsi, the family’s attorney.

“Certainly, we are exploring all legal remedies on behalf of the family.”

Bertonazzi’s family said he had mental health problems and arthritis in his spine, a condition called spondylosis.

He is wheeled into the hospital by the police, visibly moving his legs. Shortly afterwards he would become paralyzed from the neck down, but because cameras in the psychiatric wards do not record due to hospital policy, it is unclear what exactly happened.

A spokesperson for Johns Hopkins said in a statement that the hospital “cannot discuss the care of individual patients due to patient privacy laws,” but said they are “committed to providing the safest and highest quality of care for all patients.” ‘

“We will cooperate fully with authorities as they continue their investigation,” the statement said.

Baltimore police officers were called to the Burger King at 5:44 p.m. and found Bertonazzi threatening to harm himself and others.

For two hours they tried to convince Bertonazzi to come with them to the hospital.

Police reports describe Bertonazzi as “combative” and say he refused treatment by medics.

They “spent a lot of time with him and talked to him” before deciding to take him to the hospital, said Stephen A. Markey III, another attorney for the family.

Markey said The Baltimore Sun the family felt that the Baltimore police were trying to help him.

Body camera footage shows him being wheeled out of the police van in handcuffs and then taken to the hospital building.

In one clip, which Markey shared with the newspaper, you can hear the officer asking for video surveillance from the hospital.

“I need to see some footage related to this,” the officer is heard saying.

“He was doing well before he came here; When we brought him here he was doing well.

‘Now his neck is broken. We’re trying to figure out how his neck got broken.”

Markey said they wanted to know what was happening in the psychiatric ward.

“Whatever happened, that’s where it happened,” he said.

Markey said he thought it was difficult for police, adding that he “found it very frustrating because he seemed very agitated.”

Markey added, “I saw nothing on the videotape to indicate that Baltimore City did anything to him.”

Thomas Lester, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office of the Independent Investigations Division, which investigates police-related fatalities in Maryland, said they reviewed all the footage and determined that Bertonazzi “was not in police custody when he sustained his injuries suffered’.

Lester said, “Based on these factors, the IID is not investigating this incident as a police-involved death.”

A nurse told Baltimore police, who investigated the events, that he and two security officers attempted to remove handcuffs from Bertonazzi, whose hands were pinned behind his back.

The nurse said Bertonazzi first refused to cooperate, then the two guards began to lift him.

“At that point, two security officers stood him up and we tried to get the cuffs off again,” the nurse said.

“But then he started kicking the people in the front and me in the back.”

The nurse said, “They lowered him onto the stretcher and took the cuffs off. And then he said he couldn’t move.’

When hospital staff heard this, they began treating Bertonazzi as someone with a neck injury.

The nurse told the detective he did not see any excessive use of force by security.

“Absolutely not,” the nurse said.

Liz Vandendriessche, spokesperson for the hospital, told The Baltimore Sun that they would comply with any investigation.

“While we cannot discuss an individual patient’s care due to patient privacy laws, we can assure you that we are committed to providing the safest and highest quality of care for all patients,” Vandendriessche said.

“We will cooperate fully with authorities as they continue their investigation.”

The coroner has not yet released the autopsy report.

“This was a complex case that required significant additional research and investigation. It is not unusual for complex cases to take many months before the cause and manner of death are determined,” the medical examiner’s office said.

“Once the autopsy report has gone through our standard finalization procedures, it may be released, provided the prosecutor does not request that it be held for additional investigation.”