Posted on 10/30/2009 2:33:40 PM PDT by greatdefender
A patient at a Massachusetts General Hospital bipolar clinic stabbed his psychiatrist during a treatment session yesterday afternoon, and was then shot dead by an off-duty security guard, in a frantic scene that a colleague later described as “every psychiatrist’s worst nightmare.’’
Dr. Astrid Desrosiers, a 49-year-old instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the mother of grown children, and a celebrated doctor in the city’s Haitian community, was in stable condition at MGH and recovering from her wounds, relatives, colleagues, and hospital officials said.
Police identified the assailant as Jay Carciero, 37, of Reading. Relatives described him as a father of four apparently suffering from bipolar disorder.
The actions of the unidentified security guard were hailed as “heroic’’ by Bonnie Michelman, head of security for Mass. General, even as Boston police questioned the guard at headquarters.
“We’re happy he was there,’’ Michelman said at a press conference outside the clinic yesterday. She said he does not work at the hospital, and police declined to release his name.
A law enforcement official described a harrowing scene in which patients and staff could hear Desrosiers’ sudden screams from inside a treatment room just after 2 p.m., prompting people to race toward the exits.
While others were fleeing, the official said, the security guard burst into the fifth-floor room and ordered the assailant to “drop the knife.’’
When he did not, the guard fired several shots, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There was no indication last night that investigators believed the guard did anything wrong, and the official said the guard was licensed to carry the weapon
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
In Boston they may hang the security guard.
That poor guard is probably going to be out $10-20K in legal costs even when he has been cleared and lawsuits defeated.
Maybe the shrinks there should think about personally packing.
well, of course it's sarc
Its the blind leading the blind.
maybe they should try to keep knives away from mental patients as well. just throwin that out there.
The first thing to jump off the page is the difference in the character of folks in eastern cities from those in rural America. Upon hearing this woman’s screams, eveyone but the sceurity guard “raced” to the exits.
May be the security guard was a former Southerner or Westerner.
That’s the common practice (DUH!) but this didn’t say what kind of knife. Toothbrushes, plastic cutlery, etc. can be filed against cement into shivs.
Prolly taught that as policy in the cream pie city.
He’s got my permission to move to Indiana.
“Relatives described him as a father of four apparently suffering from bipolar disorder.”
A father of four children apparently suffering from bipolar disorder? No wonder he snapped. (Stupid Journalists!)
“The first thing to jump off the page is the difference in the character of folks in eastern cities from those in rural America.Upon hearing this woman’s screams, eveyone but the sceurity guard “raced” to the exits.”
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I don’t think it’s an urban/rural character difference, but there are definitely differences between communities like that. A New Yorker and I were talking about our cities, back in the 1980s. When a plane crashed near JFK, she said that people rushed over and stole things off the dead bodies. I told her that when a plane crashed where I was from (San Diego), people came running, too, but it was to the blood banks. They were swamped with volunteer donors until it became apparent that there were not going to be any survivors needing blood. I think community spirit means a lot.
Brings up terrible memories of Dr Mary Ann Jerse, shot and killed by her psychiatric patient while completing her residency training at University of Wisconsin in 1983
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“In Boston they may hang the security guard.”
Nah, they will give him 10 years for shooting a minority.
!5 years if the loony was a homo.........
I suppose that if you are going to get stabbed, there’s no better place for it to happen than in a hospital.
That being said, several years ago, I had a friend who died of a heart attack while taking the tread mill stress test, in a hospital.
“and the official said the guard was licensed to carry the weapon...”
Would a person who wasn’t licensed to carry a weapon who nevertheless had one and shot the attacker of the doctor be prosecuted?
My friend was doing a temporary gig as a psychiatric nurse and a patient jumped and attacked her. She fought back, she knows a little martial arts, but she’s tiny and the guy was big...It didn’t end as badly as it could have. Needless to say, she is not a psychiatric nurse anymore.
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