Nurse dies after assault at job. She finished her shift first.

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Something has got to give. A nurse in Louisiana was attacked at work, finished her shift, went to the ER the next night. Sent home. Dead a few days later from a blood clot. Patient abuse of nurses is not a right. Here's just another story of a nurse being attacked.

http://www.ksla.com/2019/04/15/baton-rouge-nurse-dies-days-after-attack-by-patient/?fbclid=IwAR2JHJJYDVnAyYxlxuK3RKtUmtw1CoJUc9M-gToOBxA7qidFYBak5wXExGY

7 hours ago, iluvivt said:

As a young nurse I was taught to just accept physical and especially verbal abuse from patients=just part of the job.The poor dears are ill.I learned rather quickly that the problem patient and/or family just got worse if I didn't draw the line in the sand.Furthermore, I was not willing to pay the price for abuse just because I was getting paid.So I decided the only patients that get a pass are the ones that really have no control over their behaviour. I have found I was not supported by hospital managemet and that included recently too.About three years ago a patient went ballistic,cursing and screaming at me because I closed her curtain to protect the other patient's privacy during a procedure.The level of outrage took me by surprise because this was a perfectly oriented 28 year old female.She finally shut up after the charge nurse came to listen to her silly complaints.I Iiterally said one sentance to this patient in response to her screaming at me that she would have my job and that I was crazy with a lot of horrible cursing.When I was asked what happened I believe I was not believed and was even asked what I had done to provoke her.Provoke her....are you kidding me ..I closed the curtain 3 feet so her visitors did not have a good view between my patients legs.I had to start a foot IV and needed to dangle the patients leg over the bed to get the veins to fill.They made me take a communication class...what a joke! I never took it knowing the manager was just awful at follow up plus I was furious at the manager's level of ignorance..Nurses need to be protected as well as believed.I just want to do a good job for my patients and just go home.

Same. I was taught patients are always right. BS! I refuse to be a punching bag for patients. Administration has become so obtuse to nurse abuse that the families have taken up abusing nurses. They're even allowed to call codes and rapid responses which they also abuse just because mom didn't get the pain med that YOU wanted her to have and she's in pain, forget that she's sound asleep. It's a hot mess!

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Specializes in Critical Care.

This tragedy reminds me of another attack on a nurse a few years ago in NYC. A senior nurse near retirement was still working on a surgical floor I believe and was attacked by an angry male patient who was upset about being discharged and hit her in the head with an IV pole among other things. The last I ever heard was that she was critically injured with head injuries, but never heard if she made it or if she died. Does anyone remember this and know if that nurse recovered from her attack?

It was so sad. She should have been enjoying retirement and instead was left for dead with massive head trauma.

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I am more shocked over the fact that this person didn't seek help for the injuries. I would have asked for a full body scan. Maybe they could have found the PE. Management knows we are the most attacked -patient to staff. There should be a male security guard on every unit, he should be 250 pounds and 6 foot. The same psych patients are floating all through out the system. Even in some of the psych facilities there is short staffing and not enough security. Trust me, being a psych nurse, I have seen it with my own eyes.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
36 minutes ago, Workitinurfava said:

I am more shocked over the fact that this person didn't seek help for the injuries. I would have asked for a full body scan. Maybe they could have found the PE. Management knows we are the most attacked -patient to staff. There should be a male security guard on every unit, he should be 250 pounds and 6 foot. The same psych patients are floating all through out the system. Even in some of the psych facilities there is short staffing and not enough security. Trust me, being a psych nurse, I have seen it with my own eyes.

And when approached by the 6 foot 250 lb person, it's amazing how fast many psychoses clear up.

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I would say it is a lack of respect, from both patients and managements.

Perhaps this society does not want nurses? If so, I wish you luck and my sincerest condolences.

All in all, as a society, you need to ask yourself, what kind of a world do you really want to live in? Does punishments work, or do we need to reprogram people/humans from the beginning of their lives of acceptable behaviours (socialization), go back to good honest values, and learn how to handle situations without punching somebody in the face. In other words, be decent.

It should also be noted that nurses are in majority women. So perhaps that is another issue? Hate of women? Easy to punch? Safe to punch?

How about a rule, if you abuse (verbally/physically) or assault any staff in a hospital, you will be thrown out. End of story. This is not a boxing gym.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
On 4/16/2019 at 9:27 AM, Jory said:

We have to be careful about drawing causation. Blood clots killing someone after something like this is extremely rare and the nurse most likely had a coagulation disorder that was previously undiagnosed.

They are now saying the assault caused the death, and it's being investigated as a homicide.

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Specializes in Occ Health, Employee Health, Primary Care.

So, it’s pays to read the article for those cautioning about linking the clot to the injury. The article states she tore a muscle in her leg during the attack which most definitely can cause a blood clot, furthermore the coroner has ruled that it was in fact a blood clot that was caused by the injury to her leg that travel to her lung. ...causation established, case closed.

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On 4/16/2019 at 11:27 AM, Jory said:

We have to be careful about drawing causation. Blood clots killing someone after something like this is extremely rare and the nurse most likely had a coagulation disorder that was previously undiagnosed.

The patient is being charged with manslaughter. The coroner ruled it a homicide. A DIRECT result of the injury to her leg during the altercation.

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My goodness, I feel for this nurse's family and friends. This just shows how dangerous our job can be at any given moment. We had a patient son who got really aggressive with one of the aides, he got all up in her face because his father told him no one checked on him all night. The cna was not on the night shift she was a dayshift aide. The son was loud very rude just invaded her personal space while he was shouting at her (using profanity laced language) that he was gonna sue blah, blah, blah. She was very scared as anyone would be. Thank God we had a couple of housekeeping guys that stepped in. I'm so glad we got camera's that showed night shift did go in his room and was in there for awhile and came out with linen, pads etc. His father has dementia and is forgetful at times. Maybe this guy was in denial or something about his father's cognitive decline. My heart breaks for this nurse and family. I hope they get justice soon.

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What manager, charge or supervisor let a nurse work her shift after being brutally attacked? Despite what the nurse wanted to do, she should’ve been immediately sent to the ED. Anyways, doesn’t seem like much would’ve come anyways since she did end up going there and was sent home. There should be signs all over hospital stating violence will be not tolerated. The hospital I work at, we have signs all over ED that read “violence against staff will not be tolerated” in bold letters!!! Patients aren’t always right!!!

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Specializes in ER, Critical Care, Paramedicine.
On 4/16/2019 at 12:27 PM, Jory said:

We have to be careful about drawing causation. Blood clots killing someone after something like this is extremely rare and the nurse most likely had a coagulation disorder that was previously undiagnosed.

Hey Jory, I don't mean to sound argumentative, but as an APRN and CNM you would know that DVTs are caused by virchow's triad, and the triad speaks to endothelial injury and stasis of blood flow (in this case from immobility) as significant risks of DVT. Could she have a hypercoagulable state, sure... but to make a broad statement that blood clots, I assume you read the original article and saw it was a DVT, killing someone after "something like this" is extremely rare, is not only unfounded (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b747/8999a5738ccfdfe5bdb9101176d5e452d93d.pdf) <-- just one article I found in a lit search about ACL and DVT, but also frankly a little insulting based on what you should know about DVT/PE and virchow's triad. As a nurse and now APRN who has been hit, kicked, spit on, bitten, tackled, pushed more times than I care to remember and/or count, I would never be so dismissive and make such a statement like this saying the person "most likely" had a coagulation disorder with zero proof.

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Specializes in ER, Critical Care, Paramedicine.
6 minutes ago, marty6001 said:

Hey Jory, I don't mean to sound argumentative, but as an APRN and CNM you would know that DVTs are caused by virchow's triad, and the triad speaks to endothelial injury and stasis of blood flow (in this case from immobility) as significant risks of DVT. Could she have a hypercoagulable state, sure... but to make a broad statement that blood clots, I assume you read the original article and saw it was a DVT, killing someone after "something like this" is extremely rare, is not only unfounded (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b747/8999a5738ccfdfe5bdb9101176d5e452d93d.pdf) <-- just one article I found in a lit search about ACL and DVT, but also frankly a little insulting based on what you should know about DVT/PE and virchow's triad. As a nurse and now APRN who has been hit, kicked, spit on, bitten, tackled, pushed more times than I care to remember and/or count, I would never be so dismissive and make such a statement like this saying the person "most likely" had a coagulation disorder with zero proof.

I'm sorry but I am fuming over that response saying she likely had a hypercoagulable disorder. We are nurses, healthcare professionals, and trusted by the population. That comment was dismissive and frankly dangerous. And just in case reading it in the news makes more sense, here is the article today on the arrest warrant, where it was made clear that the patient had a right leg DVT and was found to have bilateral PEs.

Truxillo sustained abrasions to the back of her neck and tore her ACL, requiring surgery for repair.

After the attack, she went to the emergency room, where she was treated and released. Truxillo returned to the hospital on April 11 to be seen in the emergency room and was admitted to the ICU complaining of trouble breathing. The warrant states Truxillo went into cardiac arrest multiple times and could not be revived. She died just after 1 a.m. on Thursday, April 11.

Preliminary autopsy results released Monday, April 15 show Truxillo died of a blood clot in her right leg and a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that had formed in or traveled to her lungs.

On Tuesday, April 16, East Baton Rouge Coroner Dr. William “Beau” Clark said the nurse’s death will be investigated as a homicide and that she did indeed die due to the injuries sustained when she was attacked by Guillory. The coroner’s report says she died from the pulmonary embolism caused by the injury to her leg.

The warrant provides more details about her death as well, saying the autopsy showed contusions to her head and blood clots in her right leg. Her official cause of death is a bilateral pulmonary thromboemboli (traveling blood clot) caused by a deep vein thrombosis in her right leg from the traumatic knee injury she sustained when attacked by Guillory.

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