State officials have temporarily halted the downsizing of Mayview State Hospital following the recent death of a former patient in a plunge from the Birmingham Bridge.

A second ex-patient, released from a Mayview forensic unit, used to evaluate and treat people in the criminal justice system, also was killed recently when he was struck by a train.

Stacey Witalec, a Department of Public Welfare spokeswoman, said the state is conducting reviews of two recent "sentinel events" involving former Mayview patients, such as unexplained deaths or serious injuries. Officials would not comment specifically on the two deaths.

Anthony Fallert

Ms. Witalec called the temporary moratorium on hospital discharges "a precautionary measure" to ensure that proper services are available to meet the needs of patients placed in the community.

Officials plan to close Allegheny County's last state hospital for people with mental illnesses at the end of next year, and downsizing of the hospital has been under way for months.

Authorities believe Anthony Fallert, who had schizophrenia, walked away from a community mental health program on Ninth Street in the South Side on Oct. 29 and jumped or fell from the Birmingham Bridge.

Police said the program did not report him missing until the following day, his 24th birthday. His body was pulled from the Monongahela River on Nov. 5. The Allegheny County medical examiner's office said the cause of death was drowning.

On the same day Mr. Fallert's body was found in the river, Ahson J. Abdullah, 58, a father of six who had been in and out of jail over the years, was struck by a train near his home in Braddock.

He was a former patient in Mayview's forensic unit, which is also slated for closure. State officials want to provide forensic services at other locations around the state.

A videotape from the train's engine showed Mr. Abdullah stumbling around on the tracks before the train struck him.

The Allegheny County homicide squad is awaiting toxicology tests to determine if he was intoxicated, and the medical examiner's office has yet to rule on a manner of death.

His wife, Sarah, could not be reached last week.

"Everybody involved in the Mayview process is very saddened to hear someone has died, and we take it very seriously," said Mary Fleming, chief executive officer of Allegheny HealthChoices, which is developing a plan to improve behavioral health care in the five-county area served by Mayview.

Officials will try to use information from such cases to improve services, Ms. Fleming said. She noted that about 80 non-forensic patients have been discharged from Mayview through the downsizing process, and "many are doing well in the community."

Officials said Mr. Fallert was released from Mayview in the spring of 2006. He later lived in a group facility in Clarion County, his family said, and also lived at his mother's home in Allentown and at a program in New Kensington before he moved to a South Side facility operated by Mercy Behavioral Health.

Mercy Behavioral officials declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality concerns. But Kimberly Flaherty, a Mercy Behavioral spokeswoman, said an unlocked, 16-bed facility for adults is among the programs that operate at 264 S. Ninth St., South Side.

Mr. Fallert was last seen at the facility at 9 a.m. Oct. 29, according to police, and Mercy Behavioral officials didn't report him missing until about 4 p.m. the next day.

They said they delayed because they presumed he had left to celebrate his birthday, according to police.

The case was referred to the missing persons unit, which contacted Mr. Fallert's mother, Susan Williams. Police issued a bulletin and released his picture, which was broadcast on KDKA-TV.

But detectives now believe he plunged from the Birmingham Bridge within an hour of leaving the Mercy Behavioral facility because fishermen under the bridge said they heard a splash in the water at about 10 a.m.

Ms. Williams said her son had talked to her by phone before he disappeared and told her he felt suicidal and homicidal. She wondered why he wasn't more closely supervised, noting he had had past suicide attempts.

At her son's memorial service last week, the Rev. David Lee, pastor of Living Word Ministry church on the North Side, encouraged Mr. Fallert's family and friends to remember the good times they had with him.

"We do thank God for what Anthony has meant in our lives," the pastor said.

At the end of the service, friends and family members embraced near a display that included photos and an urn containing his ashes.

"He was so young," his mother said.