Posted on 05/22/2025 11:55:07 AM PDT by RandFan
Okay, I watched the video. It’s obvious the poor old guy was a dementia patient who should never have been provided with a sharp knife by the “care home”. I fault the “care workers” for this.
All he understands is that he feels threatened (and he really was being threatened) and doesn’t really comprehend what is going on. They used entirely the wrong approach, too. Calm voice and distraction works much better in such cases.
I could tell stories about what I saw going on in the nursing homes Where my Dad was sent for rehab after hospital stays. Some of the staff would try to goad dementia patients into acting out. It was disturbing (understatement).
I stayed with my Dad from 7am until 10pm (visitors locked out between 10pm and 7am) while he was in these top-rated facilities and insisted those staff members ever enter my Dad’s room unless I was there. I felt so desperately sorry for the man across the hall and the lady down the hallway who had no family members there to protect them.
Other staff were excellent and handled both the man and the lady appropriately and with compassion, using distraction and encouragement.
I’d love to see what transpired before the old guy freaked out and the cops were called. Sometimes people working in these facilities can be incompetent, burned out, or just plain sadistic (and some get a kick out of humiliating helpless old people of a different race). On the other hand, some dementia patients go through a stage where they can be aggressive and irrationally violent and very difficult to deal with.
Whatever happened, what were they thinking giving that man a sharp knife?
“He’s only got one leg, careful, he’ll hop at you!”
It was a butter knife
It was probably a butter knife. He poked the staff with it with no noted injury.
Probably the drugs became too much and he went looney. The liver can only process so much and the elderly are given quantities of drugs to keep them quiet. Sometimes it doesn’t work and they lose it. They are old anyhow and a burden. Best to just kill them off and call it natural causes. The kids want the estate anyhow.
Care worker was probably forcing him to do or eat something he didn't want to. He had enough of something. What was the care worker doing that he could poke her in the stomach?
When my mom was in the hospital, she had enough of the blood tests and refused to have any more. Her entire left arm and torso were purple from them. She called me to help her. I arrived, stated she no longer wants blood work. Cops were called. Because of the way they treated me, nearly arresting me, she finally gave in to the test just to get out of that place.
I see my mom's frustration in this old man. He was alone, defending himself. Cops were bullies.
CJD?
In the video, it looked like a steak knife.
Fire hose or extinguisher is another option.
I doubt if a pensioner at a Brit nursing home gets steak.
Horrible. RIP
I doubt it, too. Maybe it was for cutting up his bangers.I thought the same as you did — must have been a dull case knife — until I saw the video. It looks like a sharp knife in the video.
They could have thrown pillows or hit him with pillows. Less painful and more effective and better headline.
Many people go through a very rebellious stage like this just prior to death. I call it the pre-death agitation phase.
I have encountered this often. It also happens with people who were very gentle souls throughout their life.
It’s and ego death and after this happens the person often sees angels and deceased loved ones.
“How did this start? Was he crabby and stabby 24/7, or did something light his fuse? Was he “demanding” strawberry ice cream for dessert, when everyone knows strawberry is only served on Tuesdays, after Bingo? Article says staff tried to deescalate for at least 30 minutes. Some people will get mad and stay mad for several hours at a time.
Sad that he could not have been temporarily confined to a certain Cooling Down room, with all but just one staff backing off, reducing all interaction. One staff stays to observe he doesn’t self injure. There should not be the image of 7 young staff “against” this one old man. He will feel backed into a corner.
As a Mental Health Counselor, I have experienced somewhat similar episodes, but never with any one quite that old and potentially fragile in health.”
Not just that... Look at the setting. He was in a CAREHOME. My kids have worked in these for years as first CNAs and now Nurses. This very same thing happens a couple times a week. It is a normal days work when most of your Residents have Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. It is just part of the job and expected normal operations to have elderly mental patients who are not in control of their own faculties to try to beat you up or stab you all the time. THEY DON”T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING...
Yep, should have just backed off and left him alone to calm down on his own. If he won’t eat or bathe just chart it to cover your butt that you tried and he refused. He will calm down in awhile... They always do... No need to force the issue. This came from authoritarian complexes. Just like Cops “You will obey my commands immediately or else!”
Were they poking her three or four times before finding a vein.... Been there done that.🙄🤒
A number of years back the couple across the street had a domestic dispute relatively late at night-—she left the house to him and called the cops. The guy only has one hand.
Early in the morning there is police activity, most immediately a bull horn sounding “come out with your hands up”-—I’ve got a sniper on my front porch and another in my wood pile before the cops even contact me.
The neighbor next door on his side of the street related that he had shouted several times “I’ve only got one hand” and she had approached the police to ensure that his claw wasn’t mistaken for a gun.
Eventually they sent his mother in who got him out—but we must of had 60-120 cops out total (in a hamlet of about 1200).
Police, today, appear to be trained that everything is a 12 (on a scale of 1-> 10) threat level, and that “officer safety” is orders of magnitude more important than ANY other consideration. They’re the last people you’d want directly responding to a psychiatric situation.
Stay away from hospitals unless you have a broken bone.
You mean an IV?🤔
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.