THE International Court of Human Rights is being asked to intervene in the case of a Craven woman who claims she was dragged from her home and taken to hospital against her will.
Susanne Kellner-Johnson, of Sutton, has already had her complaint against Airedale NHS Trust dealt with by an independent review panel.
But she claims she has still not got the answers she is seeking.
Mrs Kellner-Johnson told the Herald there were similarities between her case and that of Naseer Aslam, from Keighley, who stabbed his sister-in-law to death just six months after being discharged from Airedale Hospital in Steeton.
A report published this week criticised the NHS trust saying Aslam's treatment was inadequate, despite warning signs and desperate pleas from his family.
Now Mrs Kellner-Johnson is awaiting a reply from the International Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to see if it is willing to take up her case.
She has also called on Skipton MP David Curry who has agreed to urge health minister Frank Dobson to investigate what happened to her.
The Austrian-born mother was detained under the Mental Health Act between March and May of 1998.
She says she was dragged naked from her bath and taken to hospital after her bathroom door was broken down by police on the orders of a psychiatrist and she was strapped to a trolley.
Mrs Kellner-Johnson claims she was denied access to her belongings and, to this day, does not know why she was sectioned and detained in hospital.
"There are similarities between my case and the one revealed in the report out this week, because the hospital also ignored my family," she said.
"They didn't listen to me and they didn't listen to the people who were trying to help me."
Mrs Kellner-Johnson says she has been denied access to parts of her medical files because details contained in them have been classed as "third party information".
"It seems the trust is using this rule to prevent access to my medical records even though the Patients' Charter says I can look at them," she added.
"At the moment I am waiting to hear from the Court of Human Rights to see if they will take up my case."
Airedale NHS Trust has always refused to discuss individual cases.
An independent inquiry into the Naseer Aslam case this week called for closer liaison between those involved in the care of people with mental health problems - particularly social services, the family and carers.
The report said officials should have visited and assessed Aslam's home and family circumstances; the family should have been given information about who they could turn to; and, despite advice from a consultant, no referral was made to the trust's community mental health team.
It also says his family were left to cope "as best they could" with his behaviour and no risk assessment was undertaken as to the danger of the patient to himself or his family.
Airedale NHS Trust chief executive Robert Allen commented: "Medical staff made a decision in November 1995 that he (Aslam) was not mentally ill. As the report shows there were shortcomings around that decision.
"The trust accepts mistakes were made and for the past three years we have been working hard to improve our procedures. But nobody can say that this could have been prevented."
The family of Aslam's victim, Mahroof Bibi, are now seeking compensation from the health trust.
Aslam was sent to Rampton top-security hospital for an indefinite period after admitting manslaughter before Bradford Crown Court last year.
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