The mother of a teenage girl who attempted to take her own life is speaking out ahead of this year’s National Suicide Prevention Week, cautioning that sometimes teenage suicide attempts can occur without any early warning signs.
Four years ago, just a few days before her 13th birthday, Brandy Lumbert’s daughter, Payton Singh, attempted to kill herself with no apparent warning.
“That’s one thing I wish more people understood about suicide, there’s not always signs,” Lumbert told CBS 11. “Whether it’s a kid or adult they’re not walking around with flashing neon lights above their heads.”
Paramedics rushed Payton to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where doctors and nurses worked to save her life.
Payton’s family claimed there were no warning signs besides a challenging first year in middle school and the loss of her father.
“I just got the news that my dad had committed suicide,” Payton said, explaining the sudden impulse to end her own life.
Dr. Kristen Pyrc, a psychiatrist at Cook Children’s, said it is not unusual for there to be no advance warnings. Pyrc added that the lack of availability of mental health treatment for children continues to be a problem.
“If you talk to any parent who has tried to get their kids into counseling, they will say ‘I called these six places,’ and they just can’t get a call back,” Pyrc said.
The number of children and teens suffering from anxiety, stress, and depression is on the rise, according to Cook Children’s JOY Campaign.
The JOY campaign is a suicide prevention communication initiative intended to bring hope and needed resources to children and families facing hard times in their lives.
Cook Children’s treated 220 patients who had attempted to take their own life between January and June of 2021. Some patients were as young as 10. That number dropped this year, with 159 treated patients in the first six months. Still, the numbers are higher than what Cook Children’s used to see before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think that we are seeing the residual effect of the pandemic in terms of like kids’ mental health on top of underfunded mental health for years and years and years,” Pyrc said.
Payton, who is now hoping to become a livestock veterinarian technician, paid a visit to the Cook’s Children recently and met with the healthcare workers who helped save her life four years ago.
Initially, it was uncertain if Payton would live. She has undergone years of physical therapy since then, working through the damage caused by the approximately 12 minutes she went without oxygen.
“You look….amazing,” said Marsha Hampton, one of the healthcare workers who used to wake her up in the morning. “Let me hug you one more time.”
Payton, who will graduate from high school in the spring, told CBS 11 that there are children her age who she knows are silently struggling as she did.
