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COPYRIGHT 2005 Las Vegas Review-Journal
BYLINE: PAUL HARASIM , REVIEW-JOURNAL
The sound of the fist shattering his nose echoed in the doctor's head.
"I'm going to kill you," the patient shouted, throwing another punch.
Reeling from a blow to the face that left him choking on his own blood, the emergency room physician, struggling to regain his vision, dropped his clipboard and desperately wrestled with the man he had been trying to help.
It wasn't a scene from television's "ER." Dr. David Golan was part of a real-life drama played out last March at University Medical Center.
A 6-foot, 180-pound fitness enthusiast, Golan was staggering from the punches. But he managed to get his patient in a headlock, pulling him around the treatment room.
Another doctor rushed to help his colleague. Together, with help from security, they tackled the man to the bloody floor, where a nurse injected him with a sedative.
"We appear to be waiting until someone is killed before we take the right security steps in emergency rooms," said Golan, whose face was so badly beaten he required plastic surgery. "And I'm not talking just about medical personnel. Other patients can be part of this intolerable situation, too."
Caregivers like Golan say violence in emergency rooms and toward emergency response personnel is a real concern, especially considering they have to work directly with volatile people who may be intoxicated, on drugs or have a history of mental disorders. Legislators have recognized the issue as well, and in 2003 upped the crime to a felony to commit a battery or assault on a health care provider.
The American College of Emergency Physicians thinks emergency room violence is serious enough to do studies on it.
A survey of emergency room physicians in...
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