ELYRIA — A 44-year-old Grafton woman survived a suicide attempt at the Lorain County Jail’s women’s facility Sunday morning, according to Sheriff’s Capt. Jack Hammond.
Gosselin
Shirley Gosselin was taken to EMH Elyria Medical Center after she apparently tried to use a bed sheet to hang herself in the women’s shower area at 5:43 a.m., Hammond said.
He said she tied a bed sheet to the break-away shower curtain that didn’t break away.
Hammond said corrections officer Eric Hollis was in the hallway and quickly responded when he found Gosselin hanging.
He held Gosselin while a second corrections officer, Rita Kunrod, used a cut-down tool to free her.
She was responsive and talking, but was flown by helicopter to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland as a precautionary measure because EMH is not a trauma center, Hammond said.
Gosselin, who was in good condition today at MetroHealth, said she fell from a trash can she had used to tie the bed sheet to the shower curtain rod.
“I was trying to get down when they startled me,” she said. “I was contemplating hanging myself, but it didn’t happen.”
“I hadn’t been eating and hadn’t been sleeping,” she said.
Gosselin said her family is looking into the matter and she is contemplating filing a lawsuit.
Gosselin had been arrested on June 5 on a child support warrant, Hammond said.
He said the reason she wasn’t released was because she did not post the $3,000 bond and had holds by Elyria and North Ridgeville police. She had been at the jail over the years for a number of other arrests including assault and domestic violence, he said.
He said other inmates told jail officials that she could be upset her boyfriend was not responding to her phone calls or bonding her out.
The suicide attempt follows the May 28 suicide of 51-year-old Lorain woman, Cheryl Sweeney, who was found hanging in a cell from a bar in the window frame.
Hammond said the jail already took the shower curtain rods down so no one will attempt to hang themselves. Velcro shower curtains will be installed, he said.
The investigation into Sweeney’s death is continuing, but Hammond said jail officials are installing plexiglass barriers in the cell windows so sheets can’t be tied to the bars.
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