George Tessar (Attending Psychiatrist)
Appearances
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
We thought in view of the comments that he had made and the kind of interaction he'd had with the Changs prior to the hospitalization, that it was only courteous, fair to let them know that he was being discharged.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
There was concern that they should be informed that he was no longer in the hospital.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
No, we didn't tell the Changs that. Common sense would tell you that you don't know exactly what's going to happen three months down the line.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
I suppose it's a conceivable explanation, but a rather naive response to threat.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
We made our decisions based on what we thought were reasonable observations and interpretations of what we were seeing, and it could well be that the Changs were as well.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
They weren't consistent concerns from day to day, and by the end of the evaluation, I was quite convinced that he was telling us the truth as he felt it then.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
He no longer made those statements about wanting to kill her or feeling any compulsion to kill her. He was feeling better.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
Well, I think, yeah, that's possible. He was not conveying the same kind of impression at the end of this hospitalization.
48 Hours
Stalking Shadows
Our clinical experience suggests that we're pretty good at it, at predicting violence in the short term, 24, 48, 72 hours after an evaluation. Beyond that, nobody's very good at predicting violence.