ER Closed for Now

As I have whined about for the last couple of days, I have been sick. But that doesn't mean I am not aware of what has been happening in my neighborhood. It just means that it takes a day or two for it to sink in.

Thursday night at about 5pm (EST) our local hospital was shut down. Not because of some national emergency. Not because of and electrical outage or water problem. Not because of a weather emergency.

The hospital behind my house (well, it is actually directly behind the high school, which is 4 blocks behind me) was shut down, closed the Emergency Room, closed the Birthing Center, refused to allow employees or patients or visitors of patients to leave because...

A man was in the parking lot threatening to commit suicide.

He remained there until 5:30 am Friday morning, when he shot himself in the head. He did not manage to kill himself, he was airlifted to another hospital.

There has been a lot of conversation about who he was, why he was there, why they took him to another hospital.

I can't answer the first two, but I suspect I know why they airlifted him to another hospital.

The staff of the hospital was not allowed to leave, they were not relieved when their shifts were over. Some of these people came on at 11 am or noon, expecting to be relieved at 11 pm or 12 am. Some of the staff came on in the early am, expecting to be relieved at 6 pm or later. None of the relief staff were allowed on property. Which also means any visitors that were in the hospital when this man decided his life was not worth anything, were required to stay in the hospital.

We have not been told why this man was in this situation. As a private citizen, I don't think I need to know, but for the employees of this hospital, I think they are owed an explanation. They made tremendous sacrifices that night, they deserve the full story. I hope they receive it.