(Feb. 10, 2015) HIPAA privacy laws kept doctors from sharing important medical information with Livia Ligett's family about her brother’s illness, she said. Now she is grappling with the death of her mother at the hands of her brother, 26-year-old Ari Ligett (“Family’s tragedy could shed light on privacy laws,” NBC News, Feb 9).
“Everyone in the family assumed he was on his medications,” said Ari’s father, Ron Ligett. “If we had known he was no longer on medication we would have intervened.”
Ari was showing signs of mental illness by age five, according to his family. “He would never explore the outer world. He would only cling to his mother or me – literally cling to our clothes,” said Ari’s father. “He paced incessantly and talked to himself.”
Doctors diagnosed Ari with a range of conditions from autism to schizophrenia.
In 2012, Ari purchased cyanide and began plotting to kill his mother, Beverly Ligett, according to court reports. In October of the same year, Ari managed to convince his mother to ingest the cyanide. After she died he dismembered her with a handsaw.
"I think everyone can read my mind, see past the future and shape change," Ari said during police questioning. Two men had agreed to help him dispose of the body, he told police.
How did such a sick young man fall through the cracks of the mental illness treatment system?
Ari’s sister blames the HIPAA privacy rule.
Just days before her death, Ari’s mother called Ari’s doctors desperate for information about her son’s illness and treatment plans. The calls went unanswered because HIPAA laws prevented the psychiatrist from sharing that information, according to court records of the psychiatrist’s testimony during Ari’s trial.
“Something should have been different and it wasn’t,” said Ari’s sister. “Now I have lost my mother. If that's not an eye-opener for the system failing, I don't know what is."
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