"[S]he messed my head up pretty good..."

It's probably not a good idea for nurses to start getting involved with their patients, but it is doubly true at mental hospitals.

It started with an innocent game of chess between a patient and his nurse. But it quickly evolved.

Soon, the pair were having sex all over the hospital — in his room, the staff lounge, examination room. But their clandestine encounters went beyond the walls of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health on Queen St. W. When permitted to leave the hospital for a few hours on a community pass, the good-looking 6-foot-3 patient met the woman at a nearby hotel.

Although she was married, their relationship lasted about two years and remained intact even after she was fired from CAMH — an incident he blamed himself for and, in an act of penance, jumped into oncoming traffic.

When she became pregnant last fall, he slipped into a depression, which again landed him in hospital.
It’s an unusual tale that has been pieced together from his clinical notes, a CAMH report and an $850,000 lawsuit recently filed in an Ontario Superior Court.

The patient, identified only as John, is suing CAMH and the nurse, identified as Jane. The court has banned publication of their names to protect the identity of the child.

“I just know that she messed my head up pretty good and that I’ve done things to myself that I never did before,” John told Torstar News Service.

Sure, buddy. You had fun for two years and now you're thinking, "Hmmmm...she's pregnant and I'd rather not be responsible for that. Money sounds good, too. I think I'm gonna sue." Of course he's probably not playing with a full deck, but maybe the nurse should have thought of that before she decided to give him an some extra "therapy."