TEWKSBURY, Mass. — A patient at Tewksbury State Hospital is set to face a judge on Tuesday after being accused of attacking another patient in what officials say is the fourth violent incident in just three weeks at the facility.
At the beginning of the month, officials announced that hospital workers could no longer use items such as pepper spray, batons, or other defensive tools, citing that such measures were inappropriate in a clinical setting. Since then, violent encounters have been mounting.
Tewksbury Police Chief Ryan Columbus says a 45-year-old patient assaulted another patient with a sharp object in the Nichols Building, which hosts a second-step detox, after accusing him of stealing. Staff members separated the men before police arrived.
Columbus said they are fortunate the situation did not result in serious injury or loss of life, noting the unnamed patient has 129 entries on his criminal record. He is expected to be arraigned in Lowell District Court on an assault with a dangerous weapon charge.
There have been three other incidents at the hospital since Tuesday, April 7, all of which resulted in workers being assaulted.
In the first, a 59-year-old patient allegedly hit a staff member after acting erratically. On Sunday, April 12, a man who was visiting a relative was arrested for allegedly assaulting a pregnant staff member. Then on Friday, April 17, police say a patient hit an employee twice in the face.
A Tewksbury Hospital nurse and union official told Boston 25 News that the union is calling for an emergency meeting between state leaders and frontline workers.
“The directive that came down came with no guidance for the frontline workers on how we should be responding,” said Ryan Wilkins, a nurse at Tewksbury State Hospital. “We need to sit down with the state to come up with solutions and to receive some guidance on how we keep people safe and put an end to the violence that’s occurring at the rate that it is.”
State officials say they are keeping lines of communication open and noted that until recently, Tewksbury Hospital was the only facility that allowed security staff to use defensive weapons.
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