The newly graduated nurse was very emotional when she sat in the witness box in Trøndelag District Court on Thursday. She remembers the incident at the emergency department at St Olav’s hospital in Østmarka on 17 February last year like it was yesterday. The man who is now charged with murder and desecration was committed to hospital on the same day that he attacked the victim. – Unmotivated laughter It was not clear whether the patient was infected with covid. Therefore, the nurse put on full infection control equipment, with gloves, visor and mask. Then she went into the defendant’s room. She tells slowly and in a low voice what happened minute by minute. She explained to the patient that she was going to insert a syringe. The whole time she followed him with her eyes, and made sure not to turn her back on him. – He had an unmotivated laugh, which came more and more often, she says in court. After the syringe was seen, the patient ate dinner before going to the toilet. The nurse told him that she had to stand in the doorway. So far he hadn’t said anything to her. – I met the patient’s gaze and thought: Now I’m dying From the edge of the bed she gets a “scowling look”. He tightens his eyebrows, says the nurse. – I feel I’m getting a bit stressed and that I have to call someone, she remembers. She walks towards the door, opens it and looks towards the guard room outside. There is no one there. She hears someone in the hallway saying that there is no point in insulating if the door is open. Gradually she decides to go back into the room. Closes the door and sits on a bench by the window. Then it happens: He gets up from the bed, she does the same. The patient ran towards her, with clenched fists and in a “mechanical way”, the nurse said. The man hits her on the head and on the body. She falls and lies on her side on the bench. He stands over her. – I met the patient’s gaze and thought: Now I’m dying. Then he takes a stranglehold and says he will kill her. The hospital did not want to report the incident to the police. She cannot reach the alarm in her pants. The next thing she remembers is that she is on all fours in the room. She crawls towards the door. Pull yourself up to your feet using the handle. The alarm goes over the whole house. Staff from all corners flock to her and she gets help. She was admitted to hospital with great pain. She was later diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). She has not been able to work full-time since the incident. The hospital did not want to report the incident to the police. They believed that the patient was probably not criminally responsible. Only at the end of June, a month and a half after the murder of Lademoen, did the message come from St. Olavs. The nurse was informed that she could report the case herself. She knew it was a great responsibility to put on her. She couldn’t even pray that. – I think it’s terrifying. If one chooses to work in psychiatry, one must be exposed to such things without having any security, asked the nurse. On 29 March, the patient was out of compulsion, and moved to a flat in Lademoen. When she later found out about the murder, she reacted strongly: – That’s what I was afraid of and that’s why I wanted the case to be reported to the police. I thought I was going to die myself. Shouldn’t have been let out, believes assistant lawyer Mette Skoklefald represents the nurse. She reacts to the fact that the case was not reported to the police immediately. – Then I assumed that the conditions for mandatory mental health care were disclosed because he would have been assessed as dangerous. – And then he wouldn’t have been released at the end of March? – I think so quite clearly. says Skoklefald Clinic manager Elin Ulleberg at Mental health care at St. Olav’s hospital states that the attack on the nurse in February was included in the assessment when the hospital discharged the accused. In an e-mail to news, Ulleberg writes: When inpatient insane patients in the hospital commit violence, a concrete assessment is made in each case as to whether the relationship should be reported or not (..) It is therefore unlikely that an earlier report would have changed that further course of events. – There was a bit of a stir in the intensive care unit that day. On the day in question, the nurse had been vaccinated against covid by agreement with the superior. That’s why she came a little late to the shift in the afternoon. – It was boiling a bit in the intensive care unit that day, says the nurse in court. As usual, she would start by reading the reports on the patients in the ward. Here, among other things, it must state the risk of violence so that the carers are prepared for the meeting with the patient. But then she received a counter-notice: She had to visit the patient in question to insert an injection. She knew nothing about him. But she saw he had red marks around his wrists. Therefore, she assumed that he might have come to the emergency post in handcuffs. In retrospect, she has thought that the attack on her might not have happened if there were more people at work. The defendant said in court that he does not remember anything about the attack on the nurse. Shortly after the incident at the hospital, he is said to have perceived the nurse in the protective suit as an “extraterrestrial being” that he had to protect himself from. The superintendent thought the attack was due to the patient being stressed because he was psychotic. Never before felt unsafe at work The forensic psychiatric experts believe the defendant is still partly psychotic and does not understand that he is seriously ill. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia many years ago. During the trial, it emerged that he did not take the antipsychotic medication on many days when he was not forcibly hospitalized. The prosecutor has notified that an application may be made for a sentence of compulsory treatment. He is now admitted to the regional security department at St. Olav’s hospital. The nurse said in court that she had never before felt unsafe working with mentally ill people. – We have a rather large social responsibility towards this patient group. But I can’t go and think about what I could have done differently. I acted as best I could based on the situation, said the young nurse. Now she works in another department at the hospital when she can.
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Man indicted for murder and desecration of a corpse at Lademoen in Trondheim, strangled a nurse – news Trøndelag
