Marcela Freed!!

Marcela was freed just a few hours after we started putting pressure on them!  She believes it got her freed.  Thank you to everyone who supported Marcela!!

Free Marcela Musgrove from psychiatric imprisonment in South Carolina!

Marcela Musgrove is being held against her will at Lighthouse Behavioral Health Hospital in Conway, South Carolina. Dr. Rupa Shetty, the medical director, is refusing to release her unless she agrees to a 45-day injection of Abilify, which can have severe side effects and belongs to a class of drugs that reduce recovery rates and shorten lifespans. Marcela already has a medical care team at home and is resisting this attempt to coerce her into taking a drug that could seriously harm her.

Marcela’s situation is especially urgent because the hospital is a dangerous environment for her. She has experienced racism, bullying, and assault from other patients and technicians. Staff injected her with drugs because she was “agitated” after being attacked by another patient. She has been denied access to the Mexican consulate, even though she is a U.S.-Mexico dual citizen, and has had difficulty getting food suitable for her dietary needs.

Lighthouse has a 1.1 star average rating on Yelp and a 1 star average rating on the Better Business Bureau website. Dr. Shetty has also received many negative reviews describing her inhumane treatment of patients. Let’s hold them accountable, starting by getting them to free Marcela.

Call to Action: Contact Dr. Rupa Shetty and demand that she release Marcela Musgrove. You can call Lighthouse Behavioral Health Hospital at 843-347-8871 and ask to leave a message for Dr. Shetty, or fill out the contact form on the hospital’s website. You can also reach the hospital through Facebook and LinkedIn (you cannot post on their pages, but you can comment on the hospital’s posts), or make your own posts tagging them.

Annie Singer has posted a video on TikTok, YouTube, and X (Twitter), calling on people to call Dr. Shetty and tag Lighthouse on Facebook and LinkedIn, which you can do as well.

The comments feature of MindFreedom’s website is not working reliably at this time, so please email shield@mindfreedom.org to inform us of what actions you have taken, especially if you tried to submit a comment and were determined not to be human by Captcha. We will post your actions on Marcela’s Auxiliary Page.

When choosing your words, remember that Marcela is at risk of retaliation and you are supporting her under the MindFreedom banner. MindFreedom International does not condone threats of violence or harm. Our mission statement is:

In a spirit of mutual cooperation, MindFreedom International aims to lead a non-violent revolution of freedom, equality, truth, and human rights in mental health care by uniting psychiatric survivors, consumers, and allies through movements for justice everywhere.

This is the spirit we want to bring to this effort. MindFreedom thanks you for your support of Marcela.