Cuckoo's Nest Hospital to Reopen

An Oregon mental hospital that served as the set for the classic film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest—and the scene of some real-life psychiatric abuse—is being overhauled and will reopen, the AP reports. Though Cuckoo's Nest wasn't about Oregon State Hospital, the institution, like its fictional counterpart, has a history of abuses. Two years ago, a report by the DoJ found unsanitary conditions, deaths from preventable disease, and nearly 400 cases of patient-on-patient violence.

The horror stories from that report match those written by Ken Kesey: one patient was simply put in solitary confinement for a year, while another, with a psychological condition of chronic thirst, was left alone by a water fountain. He gained 13 pounds in water weight in one day. Officials in charge of the new hospital say the facilities will be upgraded and each patient will get the right treatment.
(More Oregon stories.)