Hospital attendant dies after rescuing coworker attacked by patient.

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060910/CAPITOLNEWS/609100322

Originally published September 10, 2006
Attendant dies at state mental hospital

By Bill Cotterell
and Jim Ash
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU

An attendant at the state's large mental hospital collapsed and died after rescuing a coworker who was being attacked by a patient in a section of the institution where criminally insane offenders are held, the state said.

James Smith, 52, of Gretna apparently suffered a heart attack, the state said Friday. He was a ''unit treatment and rehabilitation'' worker at Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee for more than 32 years, the Department of Children and Families said.

The unit where the attack occurred is in a part of Florida State Hospital that treats criminal defendants who are found incompetent to continue with court proceedings because of mental illness, retardation or autism, or are acquitted of felony charges by reason of insanity.

Department spokeswoman Erin Geraghty said Smith intervened to break up an altercation between a patient and a fellow treatment and rehab employee Thursday night. She said the other employee suffered head injuries from being struck by the patient. The injuries were determined to be minor, Geraghty said.

''The employee was taken for treatment,'' she said. ''Mr. Smith stayed on duty and continued to monitor the resident, and that was when he collapsed.''

She said a nurse attempted to help Smith, who was taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Geraghty said an autopsy would determine the cause of death, but that it appeared Smith had suffered a heart attack.

Because of privacy laws the name of the patient is not released.

Employees in the maximum-security units at the hospital often have complained about unsafe working conditions and frequent fights with patients who are criminal offenders sent to the hospital as mentally unfit for trial or for psychiatric evaluation.

An inspector general investigation in July found that minimum staffing levels are sometimes not met at the hospital - from minutes to hours - as patients are escorted for treatment.

Jeanette Wynn, state president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, or AFSCME, said low-wage workers are threatened by understaffing.

The unit training and rehabilitation workers like Smith who interact with patients on a daily basis do not get the same ''special risk,'' retirement and wage benefits as the guards who patrol the hospital perimeter, or the nurses who care for patients, Wynn said.

''We've been trying to get them special risk for 10 years,'' said Wynn, who worked for years at FSH.

James was an AFSCME member.

FULL stroy at link above.

[NC_Nurse]

1. Well , I hope his family sues the SH*T out of them

That sucks. :-(