American Notes PSYCHIATRY

Afflicted by depression, heart disease and an incurable tissue disorder, Fern Isaacson, 31, tried to kill herself four times. She failed -- no thanks, she says, to her doctor. Isaacson has filed a $14 million malpractice suit in New York City charging that Dr. Elizabeth Jenks repeatedly helped her to attempt suicide. Jenks' lawyer, Anthony Sola, retorts that Jenks "walked ((Isaacson)) through pretend suicides to reinforce the patient's conviction that she did not want to die."

According to the suit, Jenks told her patient, who had undergone more than 50 operations, "You cannot be at the mercy of your body any longer." In 1986 she allegedly advised Isaacson to take an overdose of cardiac medicines, which resulted in a coma. The next year Jenks allegedly emptied 29 Seconal capsules into a container of yogurt and spoon-fed her patient with the lethal mixture. At the last spoonful, Isaacson balked and decided she wanted to live. Jenks was able to induce vomiting, and Isaacson was saved. Later, Isaacson claims, Jenks persuaded her to take an overdose of cardiac drugs and morphine, which she managed to sleep off. Finally, the suit claims, Jenks watched while Isaacson injected herself with twelve shots of morphine. But she had built up a tolerance for the drug and survived. In 1988 Isaacson decided that her treatment was doing her no good and broke off the relationship.