Two mentally ill patients die within four months at Wyoming State Hospital, where staff members have reportedly raped, abused and neglected vulnerable residents for 30 years.

The deaths of two mentally ill patients in Wyoming have sparked a new investigation into a state hospital where staff members allegedly raped and assaulted people.

A patient who was supposed to be on a soft food diet choked on his food in July. Another was found dead in her room next to a pool of vomit a week earlier, despite a strict surveillance schedule.

Protection & Advocacy System Inc. filed a lawsuit against the Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston and the state Department of Health over the deaths.

The patient rights group is demanding the hospital release CCTV footage of the hospital, which has been embroiled in several scandals over the past three decades.

In 2015, a patient was left in a hospital lounge for more than 24 hours without food, water or access to a toilet.

The woman, Linda Gelok, smelled of urine and ants were crawling on her open wounds.

In June 2018, a 39-year-old patient hanged himself with a sheet hanging from his shower door hinges. The following October, a nursing assistant was charged with assaulting a patient three times two years earlier. He later pleaded no contest.

From 2014 to 2019, the Evanston Police Department responded to 82 reports of sexual assault and other serious hospital incidents.

The latest lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne.

The legal files included a report that one of the patients who died had missing teeth and no dentures.

The patient choked on July 22 after eating large pieces of meat and bread.

Video footage obtained by the patient rights group showed hospital staff disobeying a soft-food-only order after the patient had previously swallowed an entire hamburger and choked to death, the lawsuit said.

Less than a week earlier, hospital staff found another patient dead, stiff and cold in his room with vomit on the floor.

During mandatory security checks that morning every 15 minutes, hospital staff found the patient in question to be “quiet” and “resting” with “eyes closed.”

However, the lawsuit alleges that the video showed staff members simply looking into patient rooms and recording an examination of the patient, which apparently never happened.

The video also captured footage of the patient coughing earlier in the day, which the lawsuit says staff failed to document.

“We feel we have no choice but to do this because we are deeply concerned about the life, health and safety of patients at the Wyoming State Hospital,” Andy Lemke, attorney for the Protection and Advocacy System, said Monday via e – post said.

Wyoming Department of Health spokeswoman Kim Deti declined to comment on the latest lawsuit or the hospital’s conditions.

The National Health Service stopped providing video recordings to the disability rights group in October.

Hospital Director Paul Mullenax told the Protection & Advocacy System that the hospital is reviewing its policy on admitting patients without their knowledge, which could violate Medicaid and Medicare regulations.

Without access to video, the Protection and Advocacy System would have to rely on “inconsistent” and “vague” incident reports, “inaccurate and misleading” observation logs and inaccurate witness testimony to investigate patient treatment, the lawsuit alleges.

Other recent incidents caught on video include a patient with slurred speech and weakness shortly after suffering a head injury on Friday.

According to the patient rights group, the patient was not taken to an emergency room until the following Monday.

Another incident involved another patient almost choking on food, as well as a patient receiving another patient’s medication.

Earlier this year, Protection & Advocacy System Inc. in a lawsuit against hospital director Paul Mullenax and director of health Stefan Johansson alleges that hospital officials are obstructing the organization’s access to patients. The case is pending.