Mental health nurse almost died when trans hospital patient tried to strangle her using a drawstring from his hoodie - as attacker is jailed for life for attempted murder

[birchtreeglow]

"...In Sutton's case, because he was born female but identified as a male and because he posed a risk of self-harm, she said his care plan originally stated that observations would be carried out by one male and one female nurse."

She said Sutton had complained about the presence of a male nurse when he changed or needed to use his en-suite bathroom, so the care plan was altered to allow the male nurse to step out of his bedroom.

A judge heard Sutton had pretended to need the toilet to get mother-of-three Mrs Afzal alone before wrapping the cord around her neck and tightening his grip. He was given a life sentence with a minimum 13 year term on Thursday, May 23, after being found guilty of attempted murder at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

The court heard Sutton had a shocking previous record of violently attacking nurses, hospital patients and members of the public over a 10 year period – something Mrs Afzal said she only found out about when she heard it while sat in the public gallery during the sentencing hearing.

Sutton had committed 46 counts of actual or threatened violence and over half were carried out on members of healthcare staff.

But Mrs Afzal, from Walsall, yesterday said she would have 'refused to have gone in that room alone' if she knew about Sutton's previous attacks on staff.
'This has scarred me for life', she said. 'He was a dangerous person from day one, but nobody told me 'We were told he had a personality disorder but nothing about how dangerous he was.'..."

Housed in a female jail. I wonder how that was decided?

I thought she was born female?

She was.

I did not see about the female prison in the article though.

To me this seems more about her being a dangerous patient, and about no safeguarding or warning being provided for her endangered carer, than it is related to her saying she was a man/transgender.

I have read that taking testosterone increases a woman’s aggression though, so perhaps, if she was, that was a factor.
And if she had severe trauma and mental problems perhaps that had caused her gender dysphoria.

Afaik such decisions are (or were) based on the offenders preference and a safety assessment- the safety of the trans prisoner, not that of other inmates or staff.

FtM trans patient who was supposed to be supervised by both a male and a female member of staff

Trans patient objected to the presence of a male member of staff so it was decided that he leave the room and the vulnerable female member of staff, who knew nothing of the trans inmates shocking record of violence towards medical staff was left alone with this violent weirdo

That’s potentially the worst having of cake & eating it I’ve seen - using it to try to murder someone.

If the presence of a male nurse was objected to & 2 nurses are required, the answer is 2 female nurses. Not putting the life of the female nurse at risk.

Born female patient with mental health issues and a history of violence, being validated in a 'male gender identity' and treated with testosterone. No way that could cause problems. Very interesting that, despite the 'maleness' of their stated identity the patients wish for privacy and intimate care was not to have opposite sex care - eg they wished for privacy from the actual male carers while going to the bathroom despite their gender identity.

I can't see in the article that the offender was on testosterone.

You'd think a man would have objected to the female nurse watching him un/dress and using the bathroom, wouldn't you? I wonder why it could have been different in this case ...

@birchtreeglow

You have Claires Law quite recently,

this kind of extremely disturbing case illustrates the desperate need to have flagged up
a medical workplace situations of a list of dangerous problematic nhs patients such as this
for medical workers to have strategies and ways to protect themselves from them,

Such as medical version of Clairs law adapted variation for hospitals and clinics and dentist practices
If that makes sense.

Mrs Afzal should surely be able to sue the trust for putting her in that situation?

No female health care worker should ever have been alone with Sutton. So when the request to remove the male was made a second female should have gone in his place.

It sounds though like having two members of staff had nothing to do with staff safety, but was pandering to the trans identity, worried about offending. Possibly also it was the male who was chaperoned by the female to ensure no complaints of a sexual nature were made. In any case, the physical safety of female staff did not appear to be of concern to the trust.

@birchtreeglow
Also anyone who harrasses and is violent or abusive to medical staff in hospitals etc can be prosecuted by police and courts,

In reality how 🤔 robust are these procedures implemented if a patient is abusive in any way or violent etc then?

how often are patients warned about their behaviour or and prosecuted by the police and courts then?
especially in highly stressful 😫 emotionally charges environment and everything that goes with that accident and emergency situation then?

@birchtreeglow

I agree far too much pandering to the trans gender ethos to the detriment of that lone nurse on her shift,
I think it would have been more preferable to have had a male and female nurse to reflect the trans identity thing,

Heads should role 🤔 with that hospital trust as ultimately that's where the blame lies squarely and firmly and robustly...!

The trust should be sued, disgraceful.

Very interesting that, despite the 'maleness' of their stated identity the patients wish for privacy and intimate care was not to have opposite sex care - eg they wished for privacy from the actual male carers while going to the bathroom despite their gender identity.

Or maybe in this case it was that the patient wanted to attack someone and attacking the male wouldn’t have been a safe bet. It says “pretended to need the toilet” so it seems like there was a conscious plan. It seems this person had a perfectly normal and reasonable awareness of the realities of sex, one way or another.

it’s so confusing when you don’t know what someone’s sex is in a report - reading the info in the OP I thought it was a man because they were using “he” including the victim, and it came across like they were abandoning the gender identity in view of the crime.

Also it makes me think it’s yet another situation where the policy/culture of instant affirmation is just so irresponsible. Severely mentally ill people are known for being prone to thinking they’re something they’re not and that wouldn’t be affirmed if it was anything else. They’re also likely to be on medication and be unstable and adding powerful hormones to that is not in anyone’s interests.

Not the first case of a violent trans man and for me, that brings into question the wisdom of housing this violent creature in female prison given her proclivity to attack females. Solitary confinement is the only option and I hope to god that the bloody prison is not as incompetent as the hospital.

I don’t see how this has anything to do with gender, male and female nurses work across male and female wards. Both male and female patients can pose risks to male and female staff, nothing to do with being trans.

It has everything to do with the state of our psychiatric care. Over subscribed wards, lack of staffing, poor information sharing. Why didn’t this nurse know the potential risks and why wasn’t there a robust risk management plan in place. Mental health services are in a sorry state and this is what happens, people get hurt.

Not sure why the focus is on the woman's trans identity, except that this was a partial cause of the hospital's fuck-up in only having one nurse present. Not by any means a significant cause: they could have had two female nurses present, but failed to.

This case is about the failure of a hospital trust to manage safety and keep its employees and patients safe.

Please don';t drag it into the whole trans debate. It is about the failure to provide safe mental health care. That failure is massive, and is actually part of the wider context of the fuck-ups identified in the Cass Report.

The trans identity is important because if the disturbed woman hadn't insisted on the basis of her 'trans' identity', on having a man and a woman nurse, and then did a 180 and decided she didn't want the man in the room, Mrs Afzal would not have been left alone with her.

Yes again, bending the rules to 'VALIDATE SOMEONE'S GENDER IDENTITY' has led to a woman being put at grave physical risk.

I work in mental health and the dangers are starting to outweigh the job satisfaction.

unwell patients that have a history of violence will most likely go to PICU or secure services. However the low staffing and bad communication on wards causes these incidents. I have been abused by a patient with a long jail background of sexual assault. I have been spat at by a patient who has hep b and c, and we were not made aware until the patient had left. I have been punched by a patient on a local ward whose previous admission was low secure.

all off these incidents could have been prevented should we have been told historic events, we could have put things in place to minimise the risk. However we only get told of the patients presentation and section when they are being admitted to a ward.

some people will say as a professional I should read the notes back years and see, we are that understaffed we do not have time to read back, as this would take away care from vulnerable patients who need us especially with the like of patients on a ward in the news above.

mental health in this country is on its knees and I cannot see it getting better.

That was what was reported. You just have no bloody idea these days because of all the lies they have published to ‘be kind’.

This isn’t a trans issue it’s a risk assessment and lack of communication issue by the trust. There have always been failures of trusts to protect their staff and other patients from patient violence, google the death of Georgina Robinson ,an OT ,in ‘93 who was used as a case study when I started work in mental health in the 90’s. If you wish to highlight risks particularly associated with trans issues then look at single sex spaces and the issue of rape and sexual assault within nhs mental health facilities…see rape crisis report attached.https://rapecrisis.org.uk/news/alarming-scale-of-sexual-violence-and-abuse-on-mental-health-wards/

It's a difficult one. But. A transman requesting only a woman be present while they are changing? that is a very different proposition to a transwoman insisting that they only have female attendants. Which leads me to believe that the motivations of transmen and transwomen is very different on at least some occasions.

It is completely outrageous that given this patient/prisoner's history that ANYONE (male or female) should ever have been in a position where they were alone with them, and kept in ignorance of their past (highly relevant) actions.

Not sure about the side effects of Testosterone, but seems as though that is an issue, tool.

"...In Sutton's case, because he was born female but identified as a male and because he posed a risk of self-harm, she said his care plan originally stated that observations would be carried out by one male and one female nurse."

for those who are keen for it "not to be a trans issue" that is fair enough. But the fact is that the status as transman lead first to the two in attendance being one male and one female, then that transman deciding that the presence of a male nurse when changing was a problem.

AT THAT POINT the male nurse should have been swapped out for another female, and at no time a nurse of either sex should have been left alone with this person. So yes, there are issues that are unrelated to this person's gender issues, but yes there are issues that are directly related to this person's gender issues.

Either the male nurse should have said "suck it up, i'm here at your request and we have to work in pairs" or called - without leaving the room - and had himself replaced by a woman.

It never seems to be a 'trans' issue when it is a 'trans' person being violent, but it is always a 'trans' issue when women say no to violent people who call themselves 'trans'.

Weird.