When you thought it was patients you needed to watch...

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

So, he "snapped." Wonder if I could have used that excuse to turn off IV pumps that alarmed every two seconds for a positional IV. No sooner do you reposition the arm and turn to walk out of the room, it goes off again. Now that causes some serious alarm fatigue. Duh, you can't do that stuff!!!! Doctor or no doctor. Sounds like he is in serious need of a psych eval. Glad the nurse is okay. He would have been grabbing his gonads if it had been me!!!

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Specializes in ED, psych.
Farawyn said:
I'm so sorry this happened to you, pixie. Carp.

I know quite a few nurses that were assaulted and I've had 2 phones thrown at my head and been groped numerous times. Patients and DOCS on the groping.

Thanks, Farawyn. I'm sorry that's happened to you, too. So many things to say about that, so many things against TOS.

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Quote
He's lucky that no one went up side his head with whatever letter of 02 cylinder was handy. If my coworker is to the point hay they are being checked out, all bets are off

Agreed. Hopefully they go after him (legally speaking) regardless of his "retirement" status.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Davey Do said:
"Totally lost it" is a spot on phrase, Emergent.

We really don't know what makes someone snap, but it does happen. We here on AN.com have been affected by a somewhat similar, although more in magnitude, tragedy.

Endeavors to try and understand are more fruitful and can raise our consciousness more than outright degradation and punishment of the individual.

I remember seeing years ago testing where cats were hooked up to electrodes in their brains. A charge sent to the electrodes caused the cats to react violently.

Years ago, I was chatting with a neurologist and asked him if an emotionally explosive episode was not unlike a seizure, in that an overload of chemical-electro stimulation was taking place. He agreed the two were similar.

Now, I'm not excusing this anesthesiologists actions, but am considering other reasons for his behavior.

Ya know?

Ya know, it really does sound as though you're excusing this guy's actions. Just like a good many minimized or "understood" the actions of that other guy because they knew him and knew he "wasn't like that," because they liked and respected him.

No, we really don't know what makes someone snap, but whatever it is that makes them snap, it is not OK to strangle someone to the point of "seeing stars" or "her feet were dancing." It's not even OK to put your hands on someone . . . or to threaten to put your hands on someone. I don't really CARE what made this guy snap . . . what he did was reprehensible. And as far as the similar tragedy with more magnitude, I don't care what made HIM snap, either. It is not OK to blow away your family members with a shotgun, even if you have financial problems, legal problems or mental health problems. Nothing about either incident was OK.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Farawyn said:
No one is even outraged on this thread. Nurses are our own worst enemies.

I am late to the thread, but I am absolutely outraged! I'm outraged at some of the posters who aren't outraged.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Emergent said:
Well, it does sound like a mental breakdown of some sort to me. People sometimes snap unexpectedly, losing all rationality.

We don't know much about the history of this guy. Maybe he was always erupting with anger and went much further this time. Or maybe he had quietly gone through his career, had a mental break and suddenly snapped.

You know, I don't think it matters if he had anger management problems or if he suddenly snapped. He nearly strangled someone to death. That's not a mistake -- that's attempted murder.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Emergent said:
As a side note: I do agree with him about turning the monitors off that are not in use, which is what it sounds like from the article. I also wonder about these monitors taking 2 to 3 minutes to restart.

Ours take a few seconds to turn on. I wonder how long this monitor controversy had been brewing? Even if they do take that long to reboot, a recovery nurse can certainly anticipate a patient.

All not to excuse this incident, but trying to dig deeper...

Our monitors take several minutes to boot up. They have to be on in anticipation of the arrival of a patient. We don't know that he wasn't turning off monitors that were on for the anticipated arrival of a patient, turning off monitors that were ON patients or just turning off every monitor he encountered. It doesn't matter. The nurses are the ones who know which beds (and monitors) are being readied for patients; a visiting anesthesiologist does not know. He had no business touching the danged monitors. Much less touching a NURSE.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Horseshoe said:
Someone who purports to be a nurse wrote the following comments on CBS Denver facebook page:

Nothing like blaming the victim!

The NURSE was out of line?

Physicians should never be questioned? Where in the world did they FIND these morons?

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Farawyn said:
No one is even outraged on this thread. Nurses are our own worst enemies.

You're right Farawyn. I'm new to nursing, but not new to the behavior. My last corporate job, every so often someone went off the rails. It followed a pattern. Ticked at the world and loud complaints. One day escalates to shouting and physically attacking someone. Employees attempt subdue, security called and sometimes police.

Not one employee had the sympathy members of this forum do. Maybe it comes with understanding?

That being said, the guy deserves the same charges as anyone who assaults a co-worker. At least the guy recognized it was time to retire, however that doesn't invalidate his actions.

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mtmkjr said:
Yeah, what a strange thing to say. I don't think anyone knows the dangers of alarm fatigue as well as nurses do!

I'm also a little surprised at some of the passes given to him on this thread.

Only the people who work with him know if this was a mental snap or if he is known for jerkish behavior. Whatever it was, he doesn't need to be doing his job anymore.

He didn't have "any intention"... Intention for what? Letting go of her neck? Letting her live?

"...or...Jerkish behavior"?? Doesn't need to be doing his job any more??

He needs to be in PRISON for aggravated assault at a minimum.

I, too, am baffled by the passes given to him.

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Specializes in ED, Critical Care.

Outraged? yeah.

Doc would have needed a tube had he tried this with me or one of my female co workers.

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No I don't know! I've worked 24hrs during a blizzard, alarm fatigue? Sounds like a Great fantasy defense!

He should be treated as any other criminal!

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