Sunday, November 05, 2006

Another Mental Health Worker Dies After Confrontation With Patients

In an incident erily reminiscent of a similar even in Florida almost two months ago, 39-year-old Lee McDuffy died at Saint Agnes Hospital in Catonsville, MD, several hours after he helped break up a fight between two male mental health patients.
One of the patients, a 40-year-old man, continued to fight hospital workers as they tried to sedate him.

After the incident, McDuffy told staff he did not feel well. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he died.
The Florida event, that led to the death of James Smith, 52, was blamed on chronic understaffing, resulting in frequent assaults on staff at the institution.