A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE ABOUT BEING UNARMED... In the mid 1970s I was in charge of PSYCHIATRIC UNIT at a fairly large community hospital. Our unit received a phone call from a patients family member stating that the patients husband was on the way to our unit with a gun. I called our security department and asked them to come right away. They refused to come, and told me to call the city police: I called the city police and they also refused to come, saying that if the man came with a gun that they would come THEN. I will call the man Bubba... Bubba did show up, and I had staff standing by the phones waiting to call the police. When Bubba got off the elevator, I instantly recognized him. He was locally famous for singlehandedly beating up everyone in the bar. I guess thats why nobody wanted to come to protect our patients. I asked him, Are you Bubba? YES! I said, Bubba, I got a call saying you were coming with a gun...Are you carrying a gun? Cursing...I DONT NEED A GUN! I CAN KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS! He grabbed my shirt front and demanded to see his wife. (I HAD LOCKED HER IN AN ISOLATION ROOM FOR HER PROTECTION.) I said, Bubba, see that person on the phone...the cops are on the way. You can do anything that you want to do till the cops get here. Just dont harm one of our patients. If you do, I have to intervene, and that is the last thing in the world that I want to do tonight. Bubba more or less tossed me into my chair, and stormed through the unit...without harming anyone. (Thank God!) Hospital security showed up first...I had put out an emergency call throughout the hospital for a general emergency on our unit: Security had no choice by to show up. Shortly thereafter the city police arrived. In the chaos that followed several cops and security people were injured. One officer ended up in the ICU. DID I MENTION, BUBBA WAS UNARMED. :) Roy
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 01:15:10 +0000
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