For San Quentin resident Rodney Baylis, 64, and for his family, the month of August has too often meant misfortune, calamity, and even death.

Baylis’s mother had died of kidney failure in August 2006. His 20-year-old grandson and his 16-month-old great-grandson were killed at his daughter’s house during a sleepover in August 2016. His stepfather died in an automobile head-on collision in August 2019. His two brothers had passed away, one with kidney failure and the other with a stroke, also in August 2021. Such a compounding of misfortunes would make anyone anxious about the eighth month of the year.

The August misfortunes continued on the 9th day of August 2024, a Friday, during Baylis’s second appearance in front of the Board of Parole Hearings after 27 years of incarceration. It did not go well. Baylis suffered a panic attack.

“The commissioner asked me why I committed my crime,” Baylis said. “That’s all I remember. Then I woke up in Marin General [Hospital].”

Baylis said he had enjoyed a good morning that day. He woke up at 4:30 a.m. He went over his notes and made sure his folder contained every document he needed. Then he cleared his mind. He talked to no one that morning.

“They called me in at 8:30 a.m. and had me wait for about five minutes. I felt kind of stressed because my daughter’s husband had just died in the hospital of kidney failure a day earlier,” — yet another August tragedy — “but my case for getting parole looked fine at the time.”

He said that at the beginning of the hearing, his attorney Amanda Hart had given him hope that he would achieve his goal of a parole date. According to the hearing transcript, at 8:36 a.m., Presiding Commissioner Julie Garland and Deputy Commissioner Matthew Brueckner appeared on a conference video screen.

“There we were, in the Board Room at San Quentin, the four of us, talking,” said Baylis. “We talked about my health, my high blood pressure, my arthritis in my hip, but I was fine that morning. She asked about my medical shoes and my glasses, and everything went well.”

Baylis called the conversation mundane, almost like small talk. Baylis’s panic attack had started right there.

According to the hearing transcript, at 9:15 a.m., Attorney Hart asked for a 10-minute break. Commissioner Garland agreed. The hearing resumed at 9:48 a.m., but without Baylis. Attorney Hart said, “We had a medical emergency during the break. I had to ask for a break because I noticed signs not typical for Mr. Baylis. I am going to request a postponement for the hearing.” The commissioner granted the postponement.

The 33 minutes of the recess involved much urgent activity. Baylis said he remembered none of it. His consciousness halted when the commissioner asked about his crime.

Baylis’s lawyer later recounted the events in a message to Baylis sent via the GTL e-messaging app. “Oh wow — I am so sorry this happened! Yes, we were talking and I asked you if you were all right — you did not respond and I said, ‘Mr. Baylis, are you OK?’ You looked like you were either going to pass out or vomit, and then you did, in fact, pass out. I called the officer over and he called medical immediately but it was clear you were breathing — we tried to keep talking to you but you were not responsive.”

San Quentin’s medical staff took Baylis to the triage treatment area. From there, he went to a hospital by ambulance.

“I know what she asked me and I know what I wanted to answer… but it did not come out right,” said Baylis. “My lights went out and I woke up in Marin General. They later told me that I was unresponsive. I had a heartbeat but my heart was misfiring. They kept me in hospital for three days.”

“A panic attack is a sudden and intense feeling of fear that triggers overwhelming physiological responses even when there is no immediate danger,” wrote Rachel Rabkin Peachman in Prevention. She quoted neuropsychologist Karen Sullivan, PhD, as saying that “around 13% of people will experience a panic attack at some point in their lives.”

Sullivan said panic attacks happen if the “amygdala, the emotional center in the brain, perceives a threat (ordinarily a genuine threat, but sometimes upsetting thoughts) it kicks into high gear…. To protect the body from the perceived threat, the amygdala sets off the fight-or-flight response by sending a distress signal to the hypothalamus, which regulates heart rate, breathing, and body temperature. The hypothalamus then activates a network of nerves called the sympathetic nervous system by coordinating a giant hormone dump of cortisol and adrenaline.

“These chemical messengers course through the body prompt a series of physiological responses such as increased heart rate, quickened breathing, sweating, tingling, and a spike in blood pressure and blood sugar, all of which are meant to prepare the body to either face the threat or run from it.”

Baylis suffered these exact symptoms.

Baylis has since recovered. He continued his work as a mentor with San Quentin’s Peer Literacy Mentorship Program and at his volunteer work at the Advanced Peer Education Program, which he had co-founded.

Attorney Hart sent another message via GTL: “I let the commissioner know you were doing better and both were relieved to hear it. They both passed on their hopes of a speedy recovery, and hearing, for you.”

In the end, the postponement resulted in a completely new hearing with a different commissioner, deputy commissioner, and deputy district attorney. It took place Oct. 22, 2024, and ended at 10:54 a.m. with the sentence, “We are giving you a minimum three-year denial today.”