I don’t believe he diagnosed her with BPD, or am I missing something in the article? He said, bipolar disorder. Even if NL had certain personality traits, mania is such an acute condition, that it would obscure whatever personality disorder the person might have.
We can only assume and guess what NL had, but neither of us saw her. Perhaps, the stories of her relatives and the diagnoses of the providers treating her during prior mental health crises, as well as clinical evaluation of Dr. Winter, might be something to stem from. They saw her, we didn’t. JMO. I might be wrong.
Since the defense is clearly going to be “insanity plea”, which means that “the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic or persistent psychiatric disease at the time of the criminal act”, but the same defendant worked well in the ICU 30 minutes prior to this horrific accident, it will be an interesting case. I am ambivalent about the outcome.
Mostly, it becomes the issue of: “how much is a person with mental illness that is serious, but treatable in our time, a medical professional, with closer access to specialists, given that her condition is amenable to treatment with medications, responsible for keeping herself sane?”
What comes to my mind is epilepsy, where a patient with established diagnosis, is supposed to voluntarily forfeit their driving privileges, until they are seizure-free for six months. This clause, too, has many “ifs”. “If” they honestly stop driving; “if” they are seizure-free, “if” they are compliant with reports and do not lie to their doctor. And seizures might still happen, but apparently, this proviso - 6 months of being seizure-free - serves well to reduce public risk.
So what exists, or should exist, to reduce public risk of people with bipolar one disorder? Given that people might be exceptionally high-functioning, but end up like NL?