@ cold1
Quote:
This is a very Eye opening thread.
The underlying theme here seems to be "Your safety is Your responsibility".
This is something that I have started to preach to our new guys on the Vol FD.
|
It seems to be a universal problem, but some places are hot spots for trouble. Some people have a false sense of security about being on hospital premises, which only disappears when they see their hospital security guards in action
In Johannesburg we had a very good relationship with members of the Flying Squad, especially when some of our ER docs were threatened at gunpoint by patients and their relatives. Usually it was a case of a belligerent customer with a minor injury wanting to be seen immediately, even though the docs were tied up with several resus patients already. The nurses developed some delay tactics for that. Here's how one such event played out:
1) Dude comes into casualty with a gunshot foot, and demands to be seen immediately.
2) Triage nurse says 'Take a seat, we got three resuses going, the doctor will come out soon and see you.'
3) Dude screams abuse at the nurse, saying he wants to be seen right f**ken now. She tells him again, he can't be seen right away because the patients that are being treated are at death's door and must take priority over Dude.
4) Dude isn't happy, continues swearing, starts yelling for a doctor.
5) One of the docs comes out of the resus bay and shouts to Dude to shut up and sit down.
6) Dude pulls a pistol, aims it at doc's head, and says 'You leave what ever you're doing and come fix my foot right f**ken now!'
7) Doc says 'Okay, have a seat in this cubicle, take off your shoe and sock and the nurse will get the dressing pack and I'll get the X-ray machine. Sorry for the delay. Just give him some privacy, nurse, close the curtain there.'
8) A few minutes later one of the flying squad guys bursts through the curtain and Dude catches a few righteous slaps, his pistol is taken and he ends up pinned on the floor. After a reprimand he gets a seat in the waiting area...the same seat he was originally assigned by the nurse
We've had some bad times in Johannesburg, but nothing that would surprise any of the regulars here. There have been deaths (patients and staff).
I do find two things interesting though:
1) A staff member (particularly one who does not have any experience with firearms) can actually precipitate an untoward event involving an armed patient. Unfortunately (in South Africa at least) you can bank on a distinct minority of staff having any experience with firearms, much less owning one. There is a general dislike of firearms amongst the staff members, many of whom view the firearm itself as the source of their increased workload in general. It is hard going if you pick an argument with one of those people. I think you can minimise problems between armed patients and radiographers for example by having some guidelines for them (you can PM me if you want to see the ones I have written). Much of it depends on the demeanour and delay tactics of the staff member involved, but generally the hospital security is a waste of time at best and an inflammatory agent at worst. These patients don't have to start out belligerent, but they can get that way if the staff member makes a big issue of the patient's weapon for whatever reason.
2) Trouble can happen anywhere. At the UK hospital where I am currently working (in quite a nice part of north London), there was a drive by shooting and two people standing outside the A&E department were hit. I heard the shots and saw the shooters ride away on a motorcycle. I ended up calling that one in, protecting evidence on the ground (9mmP cartridge cases) and making sure the clothes of the victims weren't misplaced in the resus bay. That could have been me getting shot if I had been coming out of the front entrance of the hospital just 20 seconds earlier. One of the victims was an unintended target.
At the same hospital, more than 10 years ago, an adult male patient who was using a telephone outside the ward was shot in the back of the head with a small calibre weapon. He was found collapsed on the floor and the nature of the bleeding at the back of his head was not immediately apparent. The guy was in hospital for a haemorrhoid op. He didn't make it.
So I don't take anything for granted. I would very much like to be armed at all times, as I was in South Africa, but you know the deal about the UK...
At least in South Africa I carried wherever I went, and although I would never make any claims about my proficiency with a handgun on a site like this, there were many times where I accompanied someone to their car because they were unarmed and somebody had been verbally abusing them or making threats.
Rather have it and not need it, and all that...
Linear Mode
