Police: Wyoming hospital patient gouges out woman’s eye

RIVERTON, Wyoming (AP) — Authorities in Wyoming said a man who was hospitalized attacked a fellow patient and gouged out one of her eyes before he could be restrained, a newspaper reported.

Patrick Lee Rose, 53, of Dubois, Wyoming was charged with aggravated assault in the Nov. 26 attack at a hospital in Lander, according to The Ranger newspaper.

A judge set bail at $250,000 at a court hearing this week and called the case “unbelievable in many respects.”

Rose severely damaged the woman’s other eye, likely blinding her, and her injuries are being treated out-of-state, according to court records.

It’s unclear why the attack occurred but a judge said Rose may have suddenly stopped a medication, the newspaper reported.

“People who take psychotropic medications and suffer from mental illness have a tendency to believe they don’t need to take the medication and then quit taking them, and then things go wrong from them,” Lander Circuit Court Judge Robert Denhardt said.

Rose told the judge he had a traumatic brain injury.