Woman climbs out window, falls from first floor of hospital
A patient was able to smash open a locked window at Gisborne Hospital and jump off a first-storey ledge, seriously injuring herself, without being noticed by any staff.
The woman, who The Dominion Post has chosen not to name, was transported to Waikato Hospital yesterday for emergency surgery, after suffering four fractures in her spine, a severely broken left ankle, and a bad sprain on her right ankle in the incident.
After falling from the ledge, the woman dragged herself about 200 metres to the hospital’s emergency department, her family said.
Her partner, who also requested not to be named, is hopeful she will fully recover from the fall.
‘‘It’s going to take me a long time to get the image of my partner in the dark, standing on the ledge, scared and alone and having to jump to get away,’’ her partner said.
As an investigation gets under way, questions are being asked into how the window was able to be pried open, and why no staff noticed the woman until she presented to ED in a seriously injured state.
The woman was staying in a bedroom near the nurses’ station, as she had been behaving erratically on large doses of steroids she had been prescribed intravenously for about five days.
The incident happened on a medical ward, and the woman is not a psychiatric patient. Her family believe she wanted to escape the facility while in a confused state due to the steroids.
Since the incident, which happened sometime between 11.30pm Monday and 3am Tuesday, the woman had a CT scan where it was discovered she had fractured her back in four places and broken her ankle.
Her partner said in the lead-up to the incident, the woman had been hanging around the nurses’ station and chatting to staff, who were aware of her state.
Despite ‘‘not doing what she’s been told’’ over the previous five days, staff did not question her when she went into her room, shut the door, closed the curtain and turned off the lights, her partner said.
‘‘They should have gone over. They should have told her to leave the door open . . . Had the door been left open, they would have been able to see her.
‘‘I thought she would be under observation ... It could have been avoided, it should have been avoided.
The woman’s family are in the process of making a formal complaint to the DHB.
‘‘It’s disgusting behaviour . . . She had substandard care, she could have died,’’ her partner said.
‘‘They should be dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s at every point and turn, and checking regularly on patients. My partner’s been let down.’’
Kate Mather, clinical care manager at Taira¯whiti DHB, said an investigation into the incident was currently under way.