For nurses who work in mental health facilities, having to deal with a combative patient could be an everyday event. Learning how to recognize a potentially volatile situation is just one of the many special skills you must learn to develop in order to prevent injury to combative psych patients and to yourself.
You will find that in most facilities, there is a protocol in place for when one of the psychiatric patients begins to exhibit aggressive or comb…
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BUFFALO, N.Y. —A psychiatric patient under care at the Erie County Medical Center went on a rampage injuring three mental health employees, and it was all caught on camera.
News 4 Investigates first reported on this case a year ago. But now the shocking video footage was recently obtained by WIVB-TV through a freedom of information request.
The incident happened June 15, 2014, about two years ago. But the reverberations are still being felt following inspections conducted last year by the New York State Office of Mental Health which is a regulatory and licensing agency.
According to an agency official, ECMC’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP) was issued a statewide-standard three year operating certificate on September 1, 2015, and CPEP is receiving increased monitoring and oversight due to issues identified during those inspections.
“The oversight includes, but it not limited to, unannounced visits, focused monitoring of key programmatic areas, and specific requests for corrective actions when necessary, “ said Ben Rosen, public information director with the state Office of Mental Health.
Patient grabs staffer, punches another
Staff safety was one of the issues reviewed by OMH during the recertification process.
The video obtained by News 4 shows a patient, Sidoles Lubin, Jr., 38, grabbing a female mental health aide by the neck and throwing her.
Minutes later the video shows psychiatric nurse Korri Spadone being punched in the head by Lubin, followed by a male patient safety assistant tackling Lubin to the floor. The assistant is later seen lifting his shirt to show where he was bitten by Lubin during the struggle.
The footage shows other staffers rushing over to help restrain Lubin.
“I was out of it. I was completely out of it. I don’t know how I was still standing,” Spadone recalled when she was first interviewed a year ago.
Spadone, who says she still suffers from neck, shoulder and knee injuries, credits the patient safety assistant (PSA) with saving the day.
“He reacted and he was in that protect mode. And this guy was just boom, boom, boom. Had he not done that I don’t where I would be right now. I just don’t,” Spadone says. “I saw the video when we went in front of the grand jury. I balled my eyes out. And I looked at him and I said you saved my life. I said I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
Victim confronts her attacker in court
Lubin pleaded guilty to assault, and was sentenced to two years in state prison January 8.
According to court papers, Lubin was “upset” that he wasn’t being “discharged” fast enough, and “felt like” he was getting the “runaround from the staff” when police asked him why he did it.
Scott Riordan, Lubin’s attorney, told the judge at sentencing that his client has suffered from mental illness since childhood, and that he’s been untreated for most of his life.
Riordan said that Lubin was “not competent” at the time of his arrest, and that he was filled with remorse once back on his medication.
“He’s ready to take responsibility,” Riordan told the judge. “Our hope is that nothing like this happens again.”
Spadone came face-to-face with Lubin during the January 8 sentencing.
Victim says her attacker needs help, not jail
“When I saw him at first I was shaking, crying. It was very difficult. However, once my attorney said that she forgives you, when he turned and looked at me and said I’m so sorry. I knew it was genuine,” Spadone said.
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