Nurse 'strangled unconscious' by patient at Vancouver General Hospital, union says

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 24, 2025 7:39 PM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

A caregiver is recovering from her injuries aft being attacked astatine Vancouver General Hospital connected March 13, successful what the nurses' national calls the latest illustration of unit against nurses successful the workplace.

A Vancouver Coastal Health spokesperson confirmed that a health-care supplier and different diligent were assaulted astatine the infirmary that day, and the attacked diligent was treated determination portion the caregiver is present recovering astatine home.

Adriane Gear, the president of the B.C. Nurses' Union, said the onslaught happened astatine the inpatient psychiatry portion astatine the infirmary and called for much information workers there.

"A horrific incidental took spot connected March 13," she said. "One of our members ... a caregiver caller successful her career, was strangled unconscious and had to beryllium dragged down the nursing presumption to information by her colleagues."

"The idiosyncratic that strangled her was a patient."

Gear says that the psychiatry inpatient units astatine VGH are successful a abstracted building, and it takes respective minutes for information unit to get determination from the exigency department.

"That is not acceptable," she said.

"These are patients ... immoderate of them person precise concerning behaviours," she added. "They person well-documented histories of violence, and the leader needs to bash much to support their unit and the different patients safe."

Number of attacks connected nurses

In the past fewer months, Gear pointed to respective attacks connected nurses successful hospitals by patients and called for much information officers successful workplaces to forestall nurses from leaving the profession.

Those officers are unit members who are trained successful anticipating and de-escalating violence successful health-care settings, according to the province.

Gear said determination was a stabbing astatine VGH conscionable a fewer months ago, arsenic good arsenic a lawsuit wherever a machete-wielding antheral threatened unit astatine Eagle Ridge Hospital successful Port Moody.

"What is it going to take? Is it going to instrumentality 1 of my members really being killed connected the occupation successful bid for immoderate substantive changes to instrumentality place?" the national president asked.

A Health Ministry spokesperson said successful a connection that it has astir 750 full-time equivalent security guards moving crossed 30 health-care facilities arsenic of past spring.

They added that the ministry is looking astatine opportunities to grow to further infirmary facilities. 

CBC News has contacted WorkSafeBC, the province's workplace regulator, to find retired if it was notified of the attack.