Teenage boy faces charges after nurse attacked at Moncton's Dumont hospital
15-year-old boy faces several charges, sent for psychiatric assessment after Monday night's alleged assault
Another staff member was attacked at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton this week, the second such assault in less than three months, confirmed Vitalité Health Network officials.
A 15-year-old boy is facing multiple charges and has been sent for a psychiatric assessment in connection with the alleged assault of a 34-year-old man at the hospital on Monday around 11 p.m., Codiac Regional RCMP Sgt. Dave MacDonnell said in a statement Tuesday.
The alleged victim is a nurse in the child psychiatry unit, said Vitalité spokesperson Thomas Lizotte.
The boy was a patient from the unit who triggered a code white, said Lizotte. A code white is when a health-care worker is under attack and all available security is called to that unit.
The accused was arrested at the scene without incident and appeared in Moncton provincial court on Tuesday, where he was charged with assault, assault with a weapon, mischief and breach of conditions, said MacDonnell.
He was also ordered to undergo a 30-day psychiatric evaluation. He is scheduled to return to court on July 10.
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Lizotte could not release any other information about the boy, citing the Patient Privacy Act.
No details about the condition of the alleged victim have been released because the RCMP are still investigating.
But Monday's incident is in no way comparable to the previous assault at the hospital that left a female nurse with a brain contusion and a broken nose, said Lizotte.
"We are not talking about gratuitous violence. We are talking about a white code generated because of violence by a patient from the child psychiatric unit — so a patient who is ill, who has care, who is medicated," he said in French.
The first attack allegedly occurred in a nurse's office on March 11. The attack allegedly went on behind closed doors for about 11 minutes before security arrived.
Norma Melanson, the nurse's mother, told CBC News her daughter was attacked by the husband of a patient who was upset his wife had been transferred. Melanson said her daughter told her the man grabbed her from her chair, pulled out two handfuls of her hair, struck her in the face and ribs and was holding her by the throat when they were found.
Randy Van Horlick, 69, was charged at the Moncton Provincial Courthouse June 4 in connection with that alleged attack. He is facing one count of assault causing bodily harm, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison or 18 months on a summary conviction.
Last week, nurses in both Fredericton and Moncton were rallying for more to be done to prevent violence against them.
With files from Radio-Canada