There is so much yet to be discovered in the Aurora shooting. We knew that a book had been discovered in the mail room at the University of Colorado, sent by James Holmes to a psychiatrist.Even though the book set out details of the shooting, and even though it was sent several days before the shooting and received by the mail room eight days before the shooting, it was evidently not delivered to Dr. Fenton until after the shooting.
Today information has been reported that James Holmes was under the care of Dr. Lynne Fenton a psychiatrist. Fox News reported that Dr. Fenton had been disciplined by the Colorado Medical Board for prescribing medicines for herself and her husband. Before Fenton worked for the University of Colorado, she worked for the US Air Force as an acupuncturist. While some people might question the therapeutic benefits of acupuncture, most would agree that acupuncture is not generally associated with enhancement of breast size. Dr. Fenton was quoted in the Denver Post defending just such assertion.
Since 2008, she’s won various grants and contracts to study schizophrenia. Dr. Fenton’s interest in, and study of patients who were schizophrenic is particularly troubling in this case. It is not confirmed that James Holmes was seeing Dr. Fenton for psychiatric help due to schizophrenia, but people with this condition are 12,8% “very likely “ to do something violent, 48.1% said they were somewhat likely to do something violent and over 74% of people with schizophrenia are either “not very able” or “not able to act at all” or make decisions regarding their treatment.
What is even more worrisome is that the Bio of Dr. Fenton has been deleted from the University of Colo. Web site.
27 comments
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July 30, 2012 at 6:10 pm
WakeUpAmerica
Wow. I can’t fault the college for the package sitting in the mail room. Summer mail often sits in the mailroom until fall. People are on vacation much of that time. However, the info about Dr. Fenton is beyond disturbing.
July 30, 2012 at 6:15 pm
malialitman
WakeUpAmerica,
I agree, and we know that nobody can prevent a crazy person from doing something crazy…unless they can’t buy an assault weapon, and then they only kill the people they can kill with one clip!
July 30, 2012 at 6:11 pm
WakeUpAmerica
Here ya go, Malia. http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1939076/pg1
July 30, 2012 at 6:14 pm
malialitman
WakeUpAmerica,
Thanks for the link!
July 30, 2012 at 6:18 pm
reddog
I’ve been thinking that schizophrenia was a likely explanation. Caveat: I am not a psychologist or medical doctor or in the medical field. I feel very, very bad for the victims but I also feel bad for him.
July 31, 2012 at 12:31 pm
malialitman
reddog,
It’s a tragedy for everyone!
July 30, 2012 at 6:20 pm
reddog
Why would the doctor’s bio be deleted?
July 30, 2012 at 7:36 pm
MrsGunka
The comments in that link are very interesting.
July 30, 2012 at 8:35 pm
aj weishar
Any idea what drugs the doctor was prescribing for herself? Acupuncture can reduce the need for drugs that treat symptoms (as opposed to root causes), like pain medications. Looks like she went from holistic to chemical treatment for mental health and spine/nerve issues.
July 31, 2012 at 12:28 pm
malialitman
aj,
I’m sure she did prescribe drugs, but haven’t yet seen anything about what he was on.
July 30, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Kellie
Gun control will definitely be a longterm/forever battle. The mentally incompetent don’t follow laws. The criminally minded don’t follow laws. Even if ALL gun sellers followed strict guidelines and did extensive background checks, weaponry of all kinds are easy to get. The internet is a bad place. The street is a worse place. With so many angry on the right AND left, we NEEEEEED to stop taking sides and pitting one against the other. People are NOT to be compared against one another. Why do we tear down people for superficial reasons? That only contributes to a person’s fragile state.
Liberal bloggers and their followers need to realize the hypocrisy in their words and the hate in their hearts. I am not asserting that conservatives are innocent of this, I just don’t see negative, slanderous conservative blogs that tear people down for fun and lie like I see on liberal ones.
July 31, 2012 at 2:57 pm
jk
First, weapons of all kinds are NOT easy to get. Do you think you could go out today and get your hands on every and all kinds of weapons? Any weapon? Sure. Weapons of all kinds? No.
What does the rest of your comment have to do with the original post?
July 31, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Lacey
LOL, “Kellie” shakes her finger at others for tearing people down for superficial reasons, then claims liberals do this and that and the other horrible things, claiming ignorance that conservatives are the actual source of so much hatred and viciousness (see: Sarah Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, anything on Fox News, etc.)
July 31, 2012 at 5:28 am
KatzKids
OK, I’m cynical, but I have a gut feeling that Holmes carefully set up the scenario of mental illness as part of the long range planning he did for the massacre. I think he’s crazy like a fox and it sounds like he found the perfect Psychologist to back him up. Also question the supposed arrival/delay timing in the mail room. He could easily have a confederate working at the University who pulled the package, & put it back after the shootings.
Let’s not forget – he’s a brilliant psychopath.
July 31, 2012 at 2:57 pm
jk
I think you’re giving him way too much credit.
July 31, 2012 at 9:00 am
Beaglemom
Her bio seems perfectly legitimate. Remember that it’s FOX News that was making the point about acupuncture and remember that she did sports medicine and rehab. for quite a while. I think the university simply did not want the internet tied up with pesky curiosity seekers. Whatever happened to the defendant, he was certainly capable of planning and executing a horrible event. I hope that he gets to stand trial and spends the rest of his life in a prison learning that shooting up a crowded movie theatre was not the way to fame and fortune.
July 31, 2012 at 12:25 pm
malialitman
Beaglemom,
I’m not trying to say it was her fault, but just that it sounds like the guy was schizophrenic.
July 31, 2012 at 10:36 am
Celia Harrison
I thought those statistics were odd so I checked the link. The statistics you quote at the end of your article are not information about Schizophrenia, those are answers to a survey about schizophrenia which reflects what people think about the illness. The paragraph starts with, “Media coverage relating to schizophrenia tends to revolve around rare but unusual acts of violence.” Schizophrenic violence happens rarely and instead they are very vulnerable to violence themselves. Substance abusing schizophrenics do have a significantly higher risk of violence than drug free schizophrenics. There should be significant focus on keeping them drug free. People with mental illness tend to self medicate however. James Holmes was reported to be smoking marijuana and had taken a huge number of Vicodin just before the shooting.
I’ve said from the first day that he most likely was a schizophrenic, of course there may be other diagnoses and medical problems that contributed, including drug use. I could be wrong however since we have very little information. The prosecution seems to be playing games with the notebook story which makes me very suspicious. I am not really believing the story that the notebook was left in the mailroom for so long, they have summer classes which means mail comes and goes. What if the doctor had the notebook and showed it to some higher ups at the university and no one did anything about it? Perhaps they decided to plant it in the mailroom to CYA their collective butts after the shooting. If several people knew he had shown signs of aggression or violence and they knew what was in that notebook that speaks poorly of those running the university and their concern for the public. This also would have been neglectful of James Holmes if he is significantly mentally ill and out of touch with reality. I could be wrong about this as well and we may never know the whole truth.
Physicians writing scripts for their family is a common ethics breach, writing one for herself is a significant problem. How would she get that past the pharmacist? She also did not document the prescriptions in any medical records which shows clear understanding it was wrong or sloppy documentation.
Here is a link to a video that has a short description of Schizophrenia from a really smart and compassionate psychiatrist.
July 31, 2012 at 12:20 pm
malialitman
Celia,
Thanks for the link!
November 12, 2012 at 1:14 pm
9jaWife
I’ve had Physicians who just walk off the street and dictate an Rx( with proper ID of course) for a relative and even themselves ( Xanax/anti inflammation and even birth controls). They can write any script for a family or friend.The only limitation is on controlled substances / Xanax, especially C2′s like Adderal.
Maybe she could have prescribed him some medicine considering she knew his issues,
July 31, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Duchess
My stepson is schizohrenic and his father and I begged for help for him to the authorities over and over again. In my heart I always felt he would murder someone. He did. All those pleas we made were ignored and now someone has lost his life. My stepson continues to languish in jail and back and forth to the mental hospital for years. If society would pay attention to the issue of untreated mental illness and be willing to help these people, we would not face so many of these tragic killings. IN our case, our son refused to believe he was sick would not seek help and there was unfortunately little we could do since he was an adult. It is a very sad state of affiars when your country turns its back on the truly ill people. By the way I have a friend in Canada with a schizophrenic son, the state cares for him keeps him on his meds gives him a small apartment and a stipend. Yes all part of that nasty universal healthcare the Republicans want nothing to do with.
August 1, 2012 at 11:52 am
malialitman
Duchess,
I am so sorry! What a tragic event for you and your family! It is equally tragic for our country that we don’t do a better job caring for these people! Thank you for sharing such personal information.
August 1, 2012 at 6:55 pm
Duchess
Thanks Malia. He is currently once again, “being made competent,” so he can stand trial again after a mistrial last year. It has been 4 years since the murder. We hope that some day they can resolve the case. We just know he can never be on the outside, that he must be locked up and kept on medication or something else bad will happen.
August 2, 2012 at 1:54 pm
malialitman
Duchess,
Definitely!
August 1, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Celia Harrison
I’m so sorry Duchess and unfortunately there are many other stories like yours. In the 1980s the mental health systems began to be under attack and they took away safety nets for not only the mentally ill but those who needed protection from potential violence. It’s not that difficult considering so few mentally ill people are violent. They have shifted the mentally ill to homelessness and prisons. If they do get Social Security and even an apartment they are often evicted due to behavior. We should have assisted living situations that are easily accessed. Because this is a group of people who have a hard time advocating for themselves they are ignored. Rather that evaluate and assist people to live in the highest quality of life they can the mentally ill are treated as throw away people. If your son and James Holmes had properly been evaluated by a team of mental health professional and then using HHS laws been brought before a mental health judge who made decisons to keep them and the public safe tragedies could have been prevented. It doesn’t happen due to egocentric behavior, lack of a feeling of compassion, lack of a feeling of responsibility to communities, lack of education about use of the mental health system and lack of funding from legislators and governors. In some areas they want the mentally ill in the private prisons for profit and lobby against legislation for treatment.
August 16, 2012 at 5:41 pm
George
University employees still work in summer so the mail room should be functional on a daily bases, so why would this book be sitting in the mail room for 8 days. If James Holmes was a patient of Dr. Fenton he probably shared his violent thoughts during sessions. The University was informed and James was dismissed. It’s just the easy solution make it someone else problem.
August 16, 2012 at 5:53 pm
malialitman
George,
After this post I found that Dr. fenton had warned someone about this patient, and broke the physician/patient confidentiality because she was so scared, and it appears nothing was done.