So many of you are clueless as to what goes on in an Emergency Room when you have a mental patient in a psychotic crisis, or an uncooperative patient with a blood alcohol of 300+, or a patient that has enough drugs in their system to classify them as a walking pharmacy.
Why don't you walk in my shoes for a few weeks. I have been hit, kicked, spit upon, clawed, thrown against the wall, had objects thrown at me and any other violent act one of these type patients can figure out to do to you.
There have been times that if I had had a taser or a pistol I would have felt justified in using them. There have been many times that I just pray that I am not hurt too badly before the police arrive. Some of these patients take 6-8 people to physically restrain them so that they don't hurt themselves or the staff that is trying to care for them. Don't talk to me about "excessive force" when you have a totally irrational 250 pound man who is psychotic, wild eyed and in a boiling rage that is aimed at you. No force would be too excessive if it were you. Because you are NOT going to calm him down with words. If it were you you would be praying for an officer with a taser to come around the corner at any second. I guarantee you that.
I don't work at Erlanger. I don't know what happened that day. I think that it is tragic that a man died, whatever the circumstances. But, most any mental patient can become a dangerous patient at a moment's notice. And security's first priority is to protect the staff and himself and bring the situation under control. If that takes using a taser, then it needs to be used.
Hospital security where I work doesn't carry tasers or firearms. We have to wait until city or county officers arrive to have full protection from violent patients and pray that we can maintain some degree of control until they get to us.
So, please, don't make assumptions about what happened unless you have been there on the receiving end of a violent patient. And if you ever are, and I hope that you aren't, then your opinion about the use of a taser just might change.
Taser did not contribute to death, autopsy reveals
So many of you are clueless as to what goes on in an Emergency Room when you have a mental patient in a psychotic crisis, or an uncooperative patient with a blood alcohol of 300+, or a patient that has enough drugs in their system to classify them as a walking pharmacy.
Why don't you walk in my shoes for a few weeks. I have been hit, kicked, spit upon, clawed, thrown against the wall, had objects thrown at me and any other violent act one of these type patients can figure out to do to you.
There have been times that if I had had a taser or a pistol I would have felt justified in using them. There have been many times that I just pray that I am not hurt too badly before the police arrive. Some of these patients take 6-8 people to physically restrain them so that they don't hurt themselves or the staff that is trying to care for them. Don't talk to me about "excessive force" when you have a totally irrational 250 pound man who is psychotic, wild eyed and in a boiling rage that is aimed at you. No force would be too excessive if it were you. Because you are NOT going to calm him down with words. If it were you you would be praying for an officer with a taser to come around the corner at any second. I guarantee you that.
I don't work at Erlanger. I don't know what happened that day. I think that it is tragic that a man died, whatever the circumstances. But, most any mental patient can become a dangerous patient at a moment's notice. And security's first priority is to protect the staff and himself and bring the situation under control. If that takes using a taser, then it needs to be used.
Hospital security where I work doesn't carry tasers or firearms. We have to wait until city or county officers arrive to have full protection from violent patients and pray that we can maintain some degree of control until they get to us.
So, please, don't make assumptions about what happened unless you have been there on the receiving end of a violent patient. And if you ever are, and I hope that you aren't, then your opinion about the use of a taser just might change.