PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Logan Dunne’s family claims in a newly filed lawsuit that members of his treatment team acted negligently when they allowed him to leave the hospital despite being treated for mental illness and out of control diabetes.
That day, June 2, 2023, was the last time Dunne, 32, of Brimfield, was last seen alive. He had been a patient at Carle Health Methodist Hospital, being treated for his diabetic condition and was to be transferred back to the hospital’s psychiatric floor when he left.
Five months later, his remains were found in a wooded area east of Kickapoo Creek in the 300 block of North Kickapoo Creek Road.
“This has been a long process and I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. This is Mental Health Awareness Month so our goal is accountability but it is also to bring awareness to the stigma that is related to mental health disease,” said Brian Dunne, Logan’s father.
The 12-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Peoria County Circuit Court, names Methodist as the sole defendant but there are three doctors and Trillium Place who are named as respondents in discovery. That’s a way to bring a person into a lawsuit without actually naming them as a defendant and allows the family to possibly add them later.
The suit also makes claims under the state’s Wrongful Death Act.
A call to a spokesperson for the hospital was not immediately returned Wednesday.
The suit states it seeks more than $50,000 but that’s a statutory basement for this type of lawsuit. In reality, the damages could be more if the family prevails.
Brian Dunne said he hopes the suit will spark a change in the way people with mental illness are treated. More communication, he said, was needed as the “family is pretty much left in the dark.”
Attorney Jesse Placher said the goal of the suit was not only “justice for Logan but to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Logan Dunne was brought to Methodist on May 29, 2023, and involuntarily admitted to the hospital’s psychiatric floor for care and treatment. Two days later, the suit alleges, he was discharged from that secure floor and moved to another floor which was not as secure.
At the time, the suit alleges, Dunne “was to be treated for his uncontrolled diabetes on the unsecured medical floor and then transferred back to the secured psychiatric floor.”
However, on June 2, he walked out of the building after putting on his street clothes, allegedly in sight of hospital staff who should have stopped him.
Hundreds searched the area in and around Brimfield, Edwards, Wildlife Prairie Park and beyond. The search garnered national attention only to end in heartbreak when his remains were found.
A case like this can take a couple of years to work through the court system.
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