Attendant strangled by a patient

Photo Stevens LeBlanc
René Defoy has told his story to the Newspaper.

Nicolas Lachance

Friday, 15 December 2017 00:00

UPDATE
Friday, 15 December 2017 00:00

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Attacked savagely by a patient intoxicated, a care attendant regrets that the violent acts are not taken seriously enough and that the employees of the health are not better trained to defend themselves.

Blows to the head, taking the bear and bottlenecks : René Defoy has been afraid to stay there on the evening of February 26, 2017, the urgency of the Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis. “I had the neck rope, I égorgeait with the monitor,” told the attendant to the beneficiaries who are still living with the effects related to the attack of a patient intoxicated.

That evening, a man confused and impulsive, was admitted to the emergency department. “He came with the police and we had to master it, with police officers and security officers of the hospital,” said Mr. Defoy. He was transported in a department to be calm, connected to a monitor to check her heart rhythm. “At the hospital, it is not equipped to handle patients like that,” pleaded the victim.

Violent altercation

To 23 h, the hospital asked him to make a surveillance of this man in the meantime an employee of the security firm Garda. “It happens frequently to do the monitoring and make private services at the end of our shifts,” he explained.

A little before midnight, the security officer arrived. But, at the time of starting, the patient became aggressive. “It was “cranked up”. It was dark on the nurse. I placed my hand and says his name to prevent that. It was there that he gave me a punch to the head. I have been seized, ” said the attendant.

Photo courtesy

The man received several blows to the head by a patient.

He has even managed to master partially in a room. “He struggled, I used to spank on the head,” he recounted, saying that his skull rammed into a machine. During the intervention, René Defoy has coated the individual to the ground. It is at this time that the patient has taken the lead from the monitor and passed around the neck of Mr. Defoy.

“He told me choking up with the thread. This is the last thing that I have seen. I lost the notion of time, ” he said, before a nurse comes to her rescue. “I breathed more, he said. They have managed to prick. “

Photo courtesy

It has also been strangled.

The scars and wounds of René Defoy

• Post-traumatic shock (stress, fear of hospital, difficulty to drive, emotionality)
• Concussion (headaches, loss of attention and memory)
• Pain in the elbow and shoulder
• Labyrinthitis (dizziness permanent)
• 44 physiotherapy treatments
• 15 treatments of chiropractic

No jail

Following the assault, Mr. Defoy filed a complaint to the police of Levis. Her attacker pleaded guilty to a simple assault and had to pay a fine of $ 650, according to what have seen in The Newspaper. “If it had happened in a bar, he would be accused of attempted murder, or may be of serious assaults causing injury,” has criticized Mr. Defoy.

According to him, the violent incidents that occur in hospitals are not treated the same way in the palace of justice. A point of view shared by the Federation of professional agents and beneficiaries of the province of Quebec (see other text).

“I want to denounce what is happening globally in the emergency department, and hospital settings. I have nothing against my employer. There is a lack of training and resources throughout the system, ” said the complainant. Mr. Defoy receives the support of the Centre d’aide aux victimes d’actes criminels (CAVAC) and the CNESST.

It performs a gradual return to work for a few weeks. The CIUSSS Chaudière-Appalaches has indicated that new measures have been put in place this year with the Service de police de Lévis.

Justice different in the workplace health, ” said mr. Bellemare

The lawyer Marc Bellemare argues that the prosecutors in Quebec are not tough enough in Quebec to the place of intoxicated persons who commit assault serious in the health facilities and who receive charges less severe.

“I represent a lot of cases of people who have been attacked to the inside of the network… And I would be inclined to say that it is true. This is not because it is an establishment that there should be a line. You should look at the records case by case, ” said mr. Bellemare. Even if the abuser is self-intoxicated, it can not be used, according to the law, of this defence. “It doesn’t count,” he said, criticizing the prosecutors of the Crown.

“The Crown is soft “

“I find that the Crown is soft in Quebec. They put themselves in the shoes of the judge “, said mr. Bellemare, arguing that the perpetrator of René Defoy would have at least had to be accused of aggravated assault.

“Let the judge judge and of good courage “, pleaded he.

Example of front Porch

He gave the example of Marc Perron, who was attacked with blows from a sledgehammer, a teenager who was walking in the city centre of Trois-Rivières. “Why not aggravated assault as Marc Perron ? It is already over. “

With respect to the attempted murder, mr. Bellemare says that it is necessary to prove the guilty intent when there is no proof of intent to kill.

Two employees are injured every day in Quebec

Each day, two employees of the health network in Quebec are victims of physical injuries due to violence in the workplace. The orderlies wished to have more tools to defend themselves.

The president of the professional Federation of the orderlies, Michel Lemelin, determines that the acts committed against René Defoy are very serious, and unfortunately too common.

“This is a really severe aggression “, he noted in the Journal. “It is true that employees do not have enough training, especially for departments of psychiatry. “

In 2015, 664 members of the health personnel have suffered physical injuries attributable to workplace violence, statistics indicate the CNESST.

Mr. Lemelin believes that development sessions should be integrated into the approved training agents. “In Quebec, there are more and more cases, post-mentally ill in hospitals and in long-term care “, he illustrated.

Professional order ?

Also, it is estimated that the orderlies should be much better framed. For the moment, he is at the head of a professional association is voluntary.

There are talks with the ministry of Justice in order to create a professional order for the employees, confirms Mr. Lemelin.

“We are waiting. They will have to hold a licence, and training, and a degree will be an obligation, ” he said, which could require the continuing education.

The sector of activity health Care and social assistance is one of the sectors prioritised in this planning, and workplace violence is one of the risks identified for this sector, ” says the CNESST.

For the health care staff (may include other job as the attendant to the beneficiaries), the volume of physical injury related to violence in the workplace is divided as follows :

• 2012 : 613
• 2013 : 735
• 2014 : 706
• 2015 : 664