MA: Psych patient killed after attack on Mass. General doc

That poor doctor. We don't have armed security guards here, particularly not off-duty ones, but he unquestionably saved her life - what a fortunate coincidence.

I liked this:

Wonder if the thread about workplace violence came about because of this thread?

Heck, when I was a landscaper, we didn't have this problem. I think a great deal of the reason was because, well..........more than a few of our crew was only a few months removed from jail. You just knew by looking at them.............."That one hits/stabs/cusses/belittles back".

Don't understand the reasoning behind the belief that nurses won't hit back. It comes from both inside (us) and outside (them).

As I often think when I hear stories like this... how might this have been different if healthy, law-abiding citizens were generally allowed to be armed? How would this have been different if the off-duty dude with a weapon just happened to not be there?

This is the best part:

“There are four suites on that floor and this happened in the mood and depression suite,” said David Schoenfeld, a bio-statistician who said they went racing for a nurse who could help."

My sympathies to the MGH family....

They are, and crime is deterred and stopped daily.

now how did the patient get that knife .....

thank GOD the security dude was there....gee, as a psych nurse for x11 years, ive had several cases of patients coming with a knife...one time we had a direct admit from another er, i was new to psych then ...while i was doing my admission, the patient said " you seem like a nice girl, heres my knife"....ive also seen cases of patients who have been in the psych unit for days and have decided to give their "knife" to the mhc because they have " bonded with us...meaning they feel loved with us....ie "buying snacks for them in the gift shop" etc..

when psychiatrists/medical doctors/psych residents make rounds, the nurses become their"human sheilds"...the doctors dont medicate or talk to these patients....thats why they build up a lot of anger already. the patients complain to the nurses all the time that "they have been there for days and have not seen any doctor"...sometimes get so violent as to ending up in restraints....their frustation is usually the doctor dont have time to "talk" to them.


in the small community hospital i do agency work, only one security dude throughout hospital to cover er/code green/do housekeeping on side/code blue/phone operator/carry dead patients to morgue/ do rounds in psych unit etc...the security staff complained to us that they never even have a lunch break...work 12 hours...and still have lunch hour deducted on their pay check.

ive had a lot of injures as far as being hit by psych patients thru the years and ended up in ER, but not as bad as this ...GOD FORBID....

Agreed. Good shooting by the security guard.

CC

I am glad that Psycho was killed and not just wounded. You know he would get off with 10 yers in a psych hospital then released, stop taking his meds and kill another innocent person. Just think if he hadn't been stopped how many other staff or visitors might have been killed