Man facing assault charges after nurse attacked at Montreal General Hospital
25-year-old suspect was a patient at the hospital, police say
A 25-year-old man is facing assault charges after police say he tried to strangle a nurse in the Montreal General Hospital's emergency room early Saturday.
The incident occurred in the area of the ER designated for psychiatric emergencies, according to Richard Fahey, director of communications at the MUHC. The patient was "psychotic" at the time, he added.
Around 3:30 a.m. a male patient made his way into a nurse's office and became aggressive with one of the nurses, said Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant,
Police say the patient attacked the 34-year-old nurse and choked her, but she was able to push him off.
A hospital attendant tried to intervene and the patient assaulted her as well, Brabant said.
Both the nurse and the attendant suffered minor injuries.
Brabant said security agents were able to subdue the man. He will appear in court Tuesday.
A 'tragic' incident
Fahey said guards work day and evening shifts in the psychiatric emergency unit, but there is no guard overnight.
The hospital will review its policies this week and decide how to move forward. There will be a guard in that area of the ER 24/7 until further notice, he said.
In response to criticism that this incident could have been avoided were it not for years of budget cuts, Fahey said the two should not be linked.
"We can't associate an act of rare violence with budget cuts. The patient was mentally ill, he attacked someone. Our security measures were deployed and fortunately enough, we did neutralize the patient," he said.
Calling it a "tragic" incident, Fahey said the security protocols were launched in order to subdue the patient, and that support has been offered to the staff affected.
With files from Sudha Krishnan