'I couldn't believe anyone would do that': Hospital security guard at Toronto hospital puts senior in headlock, family says
CTV
An Ontario family is calling for systemic change after an 84-year-old woman went to a Toronto hospital emergency room, waited overnight and ended up injured after they say a hospital security guard put her in a headlock.
An Ontario family is calling for systemic change after an 84-year-old woman went to a Toronto hospital emergency room, waited overnight and ended up injured after they say a hospital security guard put her in a headlock.
Photos taken by her family and provided to CTV News Toronto shows June Turcotte’s face and arms badly bruised after a visit to investigate low blood sugar at Michael Garron Hospital turned into a nightmare ordeal they don’t believe anyone should go through.
“I went to my car and cried. I was sobbing. I couldn’t believe anyone would do that to a little old lady,” said Turcotte’s daughter, Shelley Pett. “She was no threat to anybody.”
Pett said Turcotte, who lives in a long-term care home, is deaf and has dementia. Pett took Turcotte to Michael Garron Hospital around noon on Sept. 19 to investigate low blood sugar levels that the care home had identified.
She was still there by nightfall, and when Pett decided to go home and sleep, she says she told hospital staff to call her if there was any trouble communicating with or calming Turcotte, who usually reads lips but may not have been able to do that in the hospital with medical staff wearing masks.
Pett also left her with a white board that anyone could write words on to communicate as well, and said she didn’t mind rushing back to the East end Toronto hospital to solve any issues that came up.
She said she got no phone call, but when she returned the following morning she found Turcotte being watched by a hospital staffer who told her Turcotte became agitated and had to be restrained.
