Woman shedding light on suicide
Denise Burne-Fein started nonprofit Break the Silence, after brother’s death in 2004.
By Sheena Delaziosdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer







Matt Burne and his sister, Denise Burne-Fein, enjoy a happy moment at a birthday party. Matt committed suicide in 2004 and his sister is keeping his memory alive through a suicide awareness group called Break the Silence.

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Richard Matthew Burne was one of the good guys. He had a great sense of humor, loved to be with his family and was committed to community service.

He was young and bright, and seemed to have everything going for himself, his sister Denise Burne-Fein said.

But, Matt committed suicide at age 37, just days after admitting himself into a prestigious treatment facility in Arizona.

Burne-Fein is dedicated to keeping her brother’s memory alive, through a nonprofit organization called Break the Silence. Her goal is to bring awareness to suicide and inpatient safety at hospitals and treatment centers.

Matt’s life began to take a downward spiral around Labor Day in 2004. He was dealing with some personal relationship problems, his sister said. Depression set in.

“All of a sudden, Matt started to look at himself internally, picking out his problems,” Burne-Fein said. “When you’re depressed, everything that’s so small seems so large.”

In November 2004, Matt decided to go the next step. He talked with his sister about The Meadows, a licensed, Level 1 psychiatric acute hospital in Wickenburg.

“He talked to me about it because he wanted reassurance about what he was doing. Things like, was he paying too much, was he going too far away,” Burne-Fein said.

Matt made a decision to go to The Meadows, where celebrities such as Rush Limbaugh, Elle MacPherson, Kate Moss, and Eric Benet had undergone treatment at one time.

Matt left his home in Scranton on Wednesday, Nov. 24, and arrived at the facility shortly after 2 p.m. that day.

When Matt got to The Meadows, he e-mailed his sister to let her know he had arrived safely. The family knew they might not be able to communicate freely since Matt’s cell phone was confiscated by staff and public telephone use was regulated.

“He was excited about learning about yoga and Buddhism there,” Burne-Fein said.

On Friday morning, Matt met with an in-house psychiatrist for the first time.

“Matt told them he had a noose at home in the basement, and had thought of nine different ways to kill himself and settled on hanging,” Burne-Fein said.

Two days later, the Burne family’s lives were changed forever.

Getting the tragic news
At 6 a.m. Sunday, Matt’s roommate reported Matt had been missing for at least an hour. It’s unclear when nurses started looking for him, Burne-Fein said.

Around 8:05 a.m., a nurse who was leaving for the day found him.

“She saw Matt leaning by a tree, and thought he was picking grass to feed nearby horses,” Burne-Fein said.

Matt asphyxiated himself on the tree with his belt.

Before the facility called the Burne family, there was a meeting between staff and patients to discuss what had happened.

“And when the doctor called, he said that when someone has it set in their mind to commit suicide, there’s nothing you can do to stop them,” she said. “That was all he said.”

Burne-Fein cried as she recalled how she learned of her brother’s suicide.

She was shopping with her mother at the Mall at Steamtown in Scranton on Sunday afternoon when a close friend called to tell Denise that she needed to talk with her as soon as possible.

“When I saw her running up to me at the mall, I thought someone was chasing her. I asked her what’s wrong, and she said Matt killed himself,” Burne-Fein said.

Burne-Fein’s first thought was: That couldn’t be right. He was in a hospital. That can’t happen.

“And at that moment, my life was changed forever,” she said.

Fighting for answers
Burne-Fein knew what she had to do.

She started to question the care her brother had received while at The Meadows. The family hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit against the facility. After 18 months of compiling information from private sources sought out by Burne-Fein and through records and depositions, the family had a list of questions that needed to be answered.

It was documented numerous times that Matt was depressed, anxious and suicidal, but Burne-Fein said he was still able to leave The Meadows in the middle of the night, unobserved and through an unlocked and unmonitored door, and able to hang himself with his own belt from a tree on an adjacent horse farm.

“The loss of Matt’s life was preventable,” Burne-Fein said. “Had doors simply been locked, secured, alarmed and/or monitored, or had he been observed or supervised per The Meadows’ own internal policy, Matt most likely would have made it through his suicidal crisis and been kept alive.”

The lawsuit ended on Feb. 23 of this year. The Burne family sued for wrongful death, medical malpractice and for the Vulnerable Adult Act in Arizona. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount of money awarded to the Burne family.

But, Denise Burne-Fein couldn’t stop there.

“I had so much information compiled, that I said I have to do something,” she said. “I can’t just stop now that the lawsuit is over.”

Heightening awareness
In honor of her best friend and brother, Burne-Fein, now president and dealer principal of Matt Burne Honda in Scranton, started Break the Silence in May.

“I want to focus on the standards of care. Eighty-seven people commit suicide a day,” she said. “That’s more than 30,000 people a year.”

The Scranton-based nonprofit labels itself a watchdog organization, which focuses on standards of care and protocols of patient safety.

“And it’s to let people know it’s OK to talk about suicide, and hopefully by talking about it, prevent it,” Burne-Fein said. “If I can save just one family from getting the phone call, I’ve done my job.”

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention will sponsor an Out of the Darkness Community Walk Sunday at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre. Burne-Fein encourages relatives and friends affected by suicide to participate in an effort to raise awareness.

Burne-Fein has also placed Break the Silence ads in USA Today, most recently on Aug. 17 and 20.

She has been featured in the (Phoenix) Arizona Republic, and has done a podcast called “Skyrocketing Suicide: Who’s to Blame?” with Dr. Carole Lieberman and the family attorney, Skip Simpson on voiceamerica.com.

“He was fabulous,” Burne-Fein said of her brother. “He did a lot of great things to help others, and he only tried to help himself. That’s the irony of the whole thing. But he’s definitely going to leave a mark (through Break the Silence).”

If you go
WHAT: Out of the Darkness

Community Walk

WHEN: Sunday Check-in, 1 p.m.; Walk, 2 p.m.

WHERE: Kirby Park, Wilkes-Barre

TO REGISTER: www.outofthedarkness.org or the day of the event.

Sheena Delazio, a staff writer for The Times Leader, may be reached at 829-7235.

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