SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Inside Mary Myers' living room lies a box of tissues – something both she and her son, Drake, needed as they emotionally reflected on what happened last weekend.
"I was working with him Thursday and Friday and then Saturday all of this kind of unfolded," Drake said.
The Myers say on Saturday their brother and son, Devin, started experiencing symptoms of psychosis. They say a crisis team came to Devin's home and his family took him to the hospital. Drake says Devin was given a pink slip by the crisis team. A document specifying he should be held, but then he was allowed to go home.
"I stayed up 9 hours straight throughout the night because it wasn't getting better," Drake said.
Sunday the Myers say they checked Devin into the University of Utah South Jordan Health Center.
"At one point he tried to get up and I stopped him from leaving, calmed him down, and one nurse came to the door," Mary said. "When I stepped outside of the room that's when he got up and started running."
Sunday afternoon, court documents state after running out of the hospital Devin allegedly carjacked a truck. A hospital security guard, trying to stop Devin, ended up being dragged and seriously injured.
Court documents report the passenger in the backseat was able to get the truck to stop, but it crashed into another vehicle. Devin faces multiple charges including aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated assault. Devin's family feel like the hospital system failed him.
"We kept pushing for him to be sedated or be admitted to the mental hospital and there just didn't seem to be a rush to do any of that he had even pulled off all of his monitors and they didn't come in and help us with that," Mary said.
FOX 13 News reached out to U of U Health for a statement. In an email, they said they are unable to comment on issues involving patient care.
"I feel like they didn't do anything to protect Devin he was definitely in a really bad state, and I feel like there was more that should've been done," Mary reflected.
As Devin's family works through their new reality, they're pleading for more mental health awareness and resources in hospitals.
"We didn't know what to do either so if they could have a crisis team available, we feel like that would be a great thing," Mary said.
They're also calling the security officer and others who tried to help "heroes."
"Thank God for the security guard doing his thing," Drake said. "Going above and beyond to try and save not just Devin but everyone else - it could've been way worse."
