A medical resident at the Montreal General Hospital says more needs to be done to ensure the physical safety of the hospital's staff.
The Montreal Gazette has been running a series of articles describing how staff are susceptible to attacks from patients — particularly psychiatric patients.
In Thursday's Gazette, Melanie Bernstein described how a psych patient at the General tried to strangle her in 2014, while she was a third-year medical student. She says the patient had had a history of violent outbursts, and this time that she walked into the room, he told her she was going to die, and then lunged at her.
She says the edges of her vision were turning black before another man tackled her attacker from behind.
She told CJAD 800's Leslie Roberts the incident still affects her, nearly four years later.
"Whenever I go into a room now to see a patient whether they have a history of psychiatric illness or not, whether I'm just going to check their blood pressure, the first thing I do is check out where the exits are, and try and position myself so that I'm the one who is closest to the exit," Bernstein said.
Bernstein says since today's article in the Gazette, the hospital told her it's reopening the investigation into what happened to her — and is instituting changes about what should happen after violent incidents occur to hospital staff.
In the meantime, Bernstein suggested the hospital needs more resources — including more security personnel, and panic buttons for staff.
"I just think that sometimes we're spread a bit too thin, and because of that I don't think it's possible to ensure safety for everyone — every hospital employee and every patient."