Taser used on postsurgical patient at Bedford hospital, police say

Source: www.star-telegram.com

Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010

By Darren Barbee

BEDFORD -- An unruly postsurgical patient at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford was hit by a powerful jolt of electricity from a Taser earlier this month, causing him to lose control of his muscles as he was subdued, police said.

In an incident cloaked in patient-privacy secrecy, Bedford police said that at about 6:15 a.m. Dec. 14, an off-duty police officer working at the hospital responded with other employees to a report of a "violent situation."

When the officer arrived, "there had been two hospital employees that had been assaulted" by the patient, said Bedford police Lt. Kirk Roberts. To gain control of the man, the officer "used his Taser to restrain the subject so he could be restrained by the hospital staff."

The officer used a technique called a "drive stun," in which an electric charge is administered but the projectiles of the Taser aren't fired, he said.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/12/25/2727507/taser-used-on-postsurgical-patient.html#tvg

---

I'm all for patient-privacy. Still, I'm really curious about all the "facts" in this case.

:crazy:

It's not unusual to have some patients go violent in coming out of anesthesia and stay that way for awhile until their brain chemistry normalizes. You never know what someone's reaction is going to be. At least, this is what my doctor and nurse friends have always said.

But, why not just sedate the patient?

:shrug:

They don't tie everyone down in recovery, as the violent reactions aren't the norm. They probably were trying to tie the patient down to administer a sedative (violent ones usually react first by ripping out all IVs, etc.) and got hurt.

A taser was a really risky move, though. If it did any damage to the patient's heart/whatever, that hospital could be looking at a big lawsuit.

I sure as hell wouldn't be going close enough to him to try and inject him with anything.
Could be the assaulted staff had been trying to do that, maybe?


I had a friend who recently had surgery and had a bad post op reaction to anesthesia. He tore the headboard off his ICU bed and hit the nurse over the head with it. They had to call 4 security guards to hold him down. How the hell he reached over his head and pulled off the headboard after major back surgery...but they had no forewarning that he would have that reaction and get violent on them. The nurse was OK but she did end up in the ER afterwards.


As a frontline healthcare worker, it is a scary scenario. Hopefully the injuries to the workers were not career ending.

is invented, it will be used (regardless of the need for it-or the logic of its use). This applies to any type of technology (good uses or bad uses).



edited for typo.

Pithy

Like his heart or diaphragm.

It would happen when he was not quite awake from the anesthesia, or awakening from sleep.

(not really. I'm a happy drunk)

The article just doesn't have enough information but if this is a situation which would normally have been handled by hospital staff, had the officer not been present, and one in which they would have normally called the police, then it looks like a case of "everything looks like a nail when you've got a hammer".

PB

By that I mean if the officer pulled it out and used it on his own and there was no taser policy at the hospital. Was it a matter of him having a police department issued taser on him during his off-duty job?

he was off duty, so why should tax payers pay for his actions? No other alternative? no on duty cops or security in the hospital? Was this guy even assigned to the hospital?
Im one of the moderate lefts here on this site, army sergeant and all - I love the rule of law and typically back police when they are trying to control a situation, but stuff like this is shady. As an EMS provider, I am also unsure how doctor-patient/HIPPA applies to this, cause I dont think it does.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I agree with you I typicallly back the police but in this case a taser is over the top. Coming out of surgery raises even more questions, why is the hospital not prepared for these type of situations? Are there consequences of anestesia recovery and shocking? Once this door is opened it's going to happen more often.

Around here, an "off duty" is when somebody other than the police dept. hires an officer to work - security during a school dance, traffic control for a tree trimming company, etc. Lots of Seattle and King County cops work at the Seahawks and Mariners games for instance. Those are considered "off duties" since they are being paid by the Seahawks and Mariners respectively. He may have been working in an off duty capacity for the hospital which means they were paying him . Calling it "off duty" is thus somewhat confusing. They are (usually) in uniform (rarely, dept's have some out of uniform off duty details as well), and subject to the same rules of conduct as other on duty officers. It is considered "off duty" in the respect that they are not on the TAXPAYER's dime, but on a private employer's dime.

or he may have been truly off duty and working as (for example) a nurse or doctor or whatever. That's less likely imo.

I have no opinion on the tasering, since there are nowhere near enough facts.

by a patient she was escorting on a walk around the grounds.

I'll bet she wishes she could have tased the guy.

Sonoman

just askin'.

Whether someone is an hour out of surgery or 2 weeks out, they are referred to as being "post op" during their hospital stay so there is no way to tell if this was a horrible reaction to anesthesia or not.
Given how the article refers to possible charges being filed against the patient, sounds like some of the officials involved are not seeing this as a case of him not realizing what he was doing.

God Bless Texas

People in pain can act irrationally. And many have peculiar reactions to common drugs and anesthesia. Even more common are patients who are secret alcoholics, and who go into DT's when hospitalized and deprived of their daily quota of drink. One woman who tried to assault me with a broken IV bottle (and that will tell you how long ago it was!) proved to be a very nice lady once she'd detoxed, and explained that she thought I was an eight-foot-tall purple rat at the time. She did find it odd that a RUS would be wearing a nurse's uniform, though.

When a patient becomes violent, we usually call a "code yellow", or whatever the local euphemism is, which is the signal for every burly orderly around to rush to the scene and sit on the patient until we can get him or her sedated or in restraints. My guess would be that the cop was moonlighting as a security guard - police aren't very well paid - and responded to just such a summons. Tasering a patient strikes me as over-the-top, though, but maybe he was a professional wrestler or some similarly Hulk-like type. They get sick, too.

In a late breaking development it turns out he was in the hospital for heart catheterization and received a castration.
When reached for comment after being subdued and drugged, the patient commented...
I was a little upset that they made such a mistake and just smiled and said they were sorry...

Just kidding sorry :)

Merry Christmas.

Call a bunch of orderlies up. Still, I was attacked several times by people who were out of their mind for one reason or another. Never took it personal. I chipped a tooth(I was young) pulling the metal cover of a glass iv bottle open during a code so I have a good idea how long ago it was. :)