Rocking In The ER

When I was in uniform I had some pretty exciting times in various hospital emergency rooms. Victims and their relatives come into the ER all boozed up and smokin' mad. The fact that you may have a minor injury does not translate into ER staff jumping through a hoop to serve you. And this pisses some people off.

My oldest daughter is an RN. She works part time at one of our area hospitals; usually in the ICU but sometimes in the ER. Last night (4 JAN 09) she was in the ER when the following occured.

Some knucklehead walks in with his sister and wants service right away - a non-critical admission. He does not get immediate satisfaction from the ER staff so he does what any right thinking citizen would do.

He pulls a gun.

Idiot.

Thomas Lefler, 58, of 753 James St., was with his sister in the emergency room when he became dissatisfied with the speed of service, and pulled out a .32 caliber handgun and pointed it at a security guard, Sgt. Tom Connellan said. The guard was able to grab Lefler's wrist and point the gun away, Connellan said. Another guard helped subdue Lefler, who was taken into custody. The gun was not loaded, police said.

Lefler was charged with felony criminal possession of a weapon and misdemeanor menacing.

The confrontation occurred at about 4 PM in the ambulance foyer to the ER. Notice the fresh looking bruise on the idiot's face. Hopefully the guards introduced Lefler to Mr. Ceramic Floor - several times. I have had several occasions where the services of Mr. Floor came in rather handy. We've had some battle royals in that ER in the past.

My daughter called me a few hours later later. She sounded fine and wanted me to watch the news.

UPDATE:

I talked to my daughter again today. She was less than 10 feet away when this incident happened. The ER was packed. Someone was yelling "Gun! Gun!" and most treated it as an exciting diversion. My daughter ran for another room. She was treating the suspect's sister when it happened. Apparently alcohol is a contributing factor to the idiocy and stupidity that motivated this fiasco.