Terror at Milton Cato Hospital

A half naked mentally ill man was allowed to terrorize hospital visitors for over three hours last Tuesday morning while security personnel did nothing about it.

It was only when he made his way to the waiting area of the X-ray/ Laboratory Department and viciously slapped a 15-year old girl at around 11:10 am that action was taken.

A police officer and a hospital attendant rushed to the scene and quickly subdued the man. Hospital security was still no where to be seen.

SEARCHLIGHT’s Reporter, Kirby Jackson, captured the entire fracas on camera. {{more}}

The man, a patient at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, started stripping down to his underwear. He sat down, laid down, and rolled over in the corridor of the male surgical ward and pulled, tugged, grabbed and cursed everyone that passed.

He even reached out to grab a toddler and the mother had to pull her close as he claimed that she was his child.

SEARCHLIGHT understands that the young man was admitted to the hospital from the mental health centre on Monday for treatment to an injured left leg. He caused ruckus all night and made it difficult for other patients to sleep. One senior nurse said he was uncontrollable throughout

the night and when morning broke he became worse.

“The doctor could not get him to take any medication, he ran outside and was there all morning” she said. She said that when his behavior worsened the hospital security was contacted but SEARCHLIGHT was reliably informed that when a security guard approached him, he cursed him and the officer just walked away, joking at his madness.

It was no joking matter for Shellon Wilkins of Largo Heights as her quiet wait was rudely interrupted by the sudden slap in her face.

“I was sitting down and he just slapped me,” said Wilkins. She said that she was scared and worried that he was really going to harm her.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do next” said a still shaken Wilkins when she spoke to

SEARCHLIGHT shortly after the drama unfolded.

Senior nurses and other hospital workers were fuming with rage because they recognized that this incident, as bad as it is, could have been worse and is a terrible reflection on hospital security.

Hospital administrator Vida Tesheira told SEARCHLIGHT that up to 12:15 pm last Wednesday she was not aware of what happened. She said that she was away at a workshop at the time of the incident. however she said she was flabbergasted that such a situation would have been allowed to go on for that period of time.

“I will investigate it, I really would like to know what really happened, what was done, and if that really happened it should have been allowed to,” she stated.

Tesheria referred us to Yvonne Conliffe who was in charge during her absence. But Conliffe said that she had received “no written report” about the incident and promised to look into it and return a call to us.

When Conliffe did call she said she did not wish to comment on the incident.