Hospital Under Siege

Yesterday a cardiothoracic surgeon at Brigham and Women's was shot in cold blood on a routine day at work by the son of a patient whom he'd treated. We don't know the whole story yet; apparently there were complications and the patient (the shooter's mother) had died. No one likes to think that this could happen at their hospital, and yet it did happen, and at one of the nation's most prestigious hospitals no less. Needless to say it's shaken me (and several coworkers) to the core.

The concept of doctors getting attacked at hospitals is not a new one. I still remember the episode of ER where a schizophrenic patient stabbed two doctors, one of whom died and the other ended up addicted to narcotics. Then there was that episode of Grey's Anatomy where the disgruntled husband of a patient who'd died went on a shooting spree at the hospital in revenge. He, too, was targeting doctors, specifically the doctors involved in the care of his wife, and killed many people.  I remember watching that episode while on call in residency, and my classmates and I briefly discussed where the best places to hide were in our hospital. And yet when an earthquake struck the East Coast and the very room where we were relaxing began to shake, none of us knew what to do. We just sat where we were watching the closet door sway back and forth, wondering whether to evacuate or wait it out.

It did cross my mind once or twice to wonder where the safest place in the hospital would be if there were a shooter in the hospital. To reach another floor, you'd have to use the staircases; you need a hospital badge to get from floor to floor and if the shooter did try to enter a staircase, he's essentially trapped there without a badge. The physician's call room is code protected, but that's not safe either. Some of the nurses know the code and could be forced to give it up under duress. Not to mention once you're in there, there's no escape. The shooter could just shoot through the glass even if I did hide under the table or behind the couch. Then of course there's the random empty patient's room, but no matter how much I think about it, there really isn't a safe place in the hospital.

Then the next question: flee or fight? I'll be the first to say I'm a coward when it comes to confrontations, that when I see a ball flying toward me I'd duck before I'd try to catch the ball in mid air. And yet, I'd like to think that if it really came down to it, I'd fight back if I had to. It's not like I have zero training in self defense. I've been taking kickboxing classes for over a year; I know my kicks are more powerful than my punches, I know where to press my thumb into someone's throat to cut off their airway, and I know where to aim to bring someone to their knees. But what good is that against a gun, which could snuff out my life in an instant, as it did the life of Dr. Mike Davidson?

It's sobering to think that any one of us, if we pissed off a patient too much, could end up dead, injured or worse. I have no intention of letting fear take over my life, but I will be vigilant just in case.