Florida Man Set Hospital Bed on Fire to Get Nurse’s Attention, Police Say – IOTW Report

Florida Man Set Hospital Bed on Fire to Get Nurse’s Attention, Police Say

KFI: A Florida man who became upset because he believed he was being ignored by hospital staff is accused of setting his hospital bed on fire in an attempt to get a nurse’s attention, the New Smyrna Beach Police Department said.

Authorities say the suspect, identified as John King, admitted to setting a plastic bag on fire on Saturday after he was admitted to AdventHealth for respiratory failure, and he believed the staff were ignoring his requests to bring him his clothes. read more

32 Comments on Florida Man Set Hospital Bed on Fire to Get Nurse’s Attention, Police Say

  1. He looks like the father of the naked
    teenage girl chaser…
    Nothing helps me breath better than
    huffin’ me some toxic smoldering
    mattress stuffings.

    9
  2. …gotta be honest here, during my son’s last hospital stay where they tried very hard to let him die from easily revesible asthma aggravated by a shitty pill grind causing laryngospasms until we got him to vomit it out, and this crapppy venturi mask through a humidifier because the nurse was too damned worried about getting a doctor to authorize fucking ALBUTEROL even though he already HAD a prescription, I metaphorically burned HIS wing of the hospital down and did what I was trained to do to save his life until I got someone to open the damn crash cart and GET some…

    …never, EVER leave a loved one alone in a hospital.

    …not if you want them to live.

    …I normally LOVE nurses, but I seared the ears on a few of ’em THAT day…

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  3. SNS,
    Great advice.
    My father recently had his 3rd stroke. Doctors were quick to advocate for his death stating he would choke to death on his own saliva anyway. After my sister the R.N. demanded gastric feeding tube, he has learned to eat heartily, speaks well and after 3 months has yet to choke to death.
    We have experienced so many medical horrors like nurses and Nurse Practitioner thinking blood sugars in the 500’s are normal, nurses not believing that his oxygen saturation fell to the 70’s during undiagnosed sleep apnea. (We diagnosed that ourselves when spending the night at his bed side), resultant BiPAP humidifier with dime sized hole and crack in it resulting in no air going into tubing to the patient……
    Patients need an independent advocate who can take the heat from other Drs. and nurses.And the heat will be intense!!
    It reinforced to me that we live in a culture of death.
    To God, one day is a thousand years; a thousand years is like a day.
    God chooses when we die.

    12
  4. Hospitals – where people go to die.

    Took my wife to the Emergency Room (in MD) where she was mis-diagnosed – took us 12 hours and a Nurse from Heaven to find a doctor who would just sit for 2 minutes and listen to her. Correct diagnosis within 2 hours and then to surgery where she was saved.
    Now I can’t get her near a doctor.

    Shame – we encountered the entire spectrum – one or two great doctors and nurses and a slew of mediocre to less-than-mediocre doctors and nurses (the great ones protecting the shitty ones, of course).

    izlamo delenda est …

    11
  5. Shame – we encountered the entire spectrum – one or two great doctors and nurses and a slew of mediocre to less-than-mediocre doctors and nurses (the great ones protecting the shitty ones, of course).

    The great ones who really love patients will stick it out and train (on the job) the mediocre/lazy nurses being pumped out of the schools. Those who realize they were not properly trained will seek out and heed the more experienced nurses. The others, prideful and clueless, will carry on in their mediocrity and collect the paycheck.

    8
  6. “If you have to urinate (Dr. Meredith had the Foley tube removed on the 2nd day post-op), just push the call button,” she said with a slight uplift at each end of her mouth; I’d wondered why since I hadn’t seen her smile since she started her shift.
    15 minutes after pushing the button and holding it down for at least the past minute, I took out my lighter.
    Six of ’em: CMA, RMA, RN, PA, you name it – they were all in there – finally got their attention. After I’d pissed on the floor.
    They were pissed, too – but what the hell! I’d like to see them hold it for ten minutes +.

    9
  7. I just spent 15 hours across two emergency rooms in two cities…

    The latter five was a better experience in at least esthetics and promptness.

    But I digress… The first was crowded with probably forty to forty five people.. I attended with my Ukrainian neighbor and her six year old son who had been in the previous day with stomach pain.

    Triage…. Then wait two hours for blood work to be done.

    Then wait 3 hours to get into a room in the ER.

    I am attempting to be both a calming voice and reassuring force for my neighbor. But what happened next was tough to accept… We’re Sent back to the waiting room. Now her son’s pain is intensifing and he hasn’t had anything for pain..

    So we get put in an office just off the waiting room.. The staff attempts to use two different translator tools but neither of them works.. Neighbor does speak with some broken English… But still there are issues..

    They now get us back to a room again.

    We’ve been here 8 hours before we ever see a doctor…

    At the nine hour mark the doctor returned and stated he was being airflighted to Ft Worth..

    9
  8. I know my own ER/ Hospital experience was very very shitty. [california state-run hospital)
    It was so bad, that after 10 hours in the waiting room, I had to spend another 3 or 4 for a room. Because illegal aliens who were there for free benadryl, tylenol and antibiotic refills were served first. Follow-up treatments in the ER. For real.
    Anyway, the doctor casually told me they would have had to call the cops if I left before I got a room and got treated. LOL. Yeah, that was because they didn’t want some judge to know that they left me sitting in the waiting room with symptoms of damn-near-coma diabetes and did nothing about it. Not even an IV drip. Because… illegals needed Tylenol.

    15
  9. The kid went to cooks children’s hospital. What was diagnosed as appendicitis turned out to be a mass in intestines.. The jury is still out on that but he is recovering from surgery now.

    While he was airflighted, I drove her 120 miles to ft worth at 4:30 in the morning.. I slept an hour and a half after we arrived when I left at eleven he had more tests and ultrasound but still hadn’t been seen by a doctor..

    Nurses said that they were being briefed however

    He went to surgery about three pm. Appendix was fine had a mass.

    7
  10. JoJoMittens
    FEBRUARY 29, 2020 AT 9:59 AM

    “Patients need an independent advocate who can take the heat from other Drs. and nurses.And the heat will be intense!!”

    …It helped in my case that God had equipped me years before to deal with this, because I had spent a decade as a medic, so i was not afraid of doctors and nurses or intimidated by the hospital environment. I was used to snotty condensation from my medical betters when I told them they were missing something, and had long ago learned how to forcefully advocate for my patient’s safety to someone who thought I was a stupid peasant, so I knew how to get what I wanted no matter the headwind in that institutional framework. Not everyone has that. Not that I didn’t WANT to jump around, get in peoples faces, and yell loudly at cross-purposes, but I knew all that would get was me arrested while my son quietly died behind me, and it was MUCH more satisfying to speak to them using medical terminology and understanding of the issue as I explained his needs and their liability if they were not met, and it helped shock them into action because they weren’t expecting that from some patient’s rando parent.

    It also helped that I knew the equipment, the limitations of the scanty supply of devices we had immediately availabe to keep my son alive with for the 45 MINUTES the nurse fucked around and wasn’t in the room, so I could keep his O2 sat up without spraying water in his already choking face from the damn bubbler I couldn’t get RID of because the room didn’t have any Christmas tree fixtures.

    Again, not everyone has that. I thank God that He saw to it I did, but it frightens me to think it could repeat with a more tragic outcome because someone else is intimidated into silence and doesn’t know how to help themselves, or is simply absent.

    …we COULD have left him alone, for the hospital to take care of. He was legally an adult, seemed pretty stable, monitored constantly on telemetry by trained professionals, so we could have gone home, had a nice dinner, slept in our comfy beds…

    …and collected his corpse the next day.

    I have NO doubt, were we not there, he would have been DEAD. And it’s not to my credit, but to God’s that we WERE there, I WAS trained, and he’s NOT dead today.

    To God be the glory.

    …there are two words you need to know when you are looking at a hospital stay, for you or a loved one.

    Iatrogenic.
    Nosocomial.

    “Iatrogenic” means you have an illness or problem CAUSED by your DOCTOR.

    “Nosocomial” means you have an illness or problem CAUSED by your HOSPITAL.

    They use Latin so you don’t know what it says in your chart, but it’s SO common they NEEDED words for those conditions.

    Doctors are not God.
    Nurses are not angels.
    And hospitals are DEFINITELY not Heaven.

    Don’t let your guard down or leave anyone alone in a hospital.

    EVER.

    8
  11. SNS
    Unfortunately, my sister, RN, and I have been banned by the nursing home and cannot visit my dad anymore. Not even a phone call is allowed.

    The administrators threatened my mother, fathers POA, into asserting her rights to have us banned stating that the other alternative was for the home to have a restraining order filed against us.

    They stated the reason was because we were providing him unauthorized foods (which even the nursing home provided).
    The real reason, they also stated was because we bullied the nurses and doctor into providing IV fluids after an 8 lb. weight loss due to diarrhea and vomiting.

    Please pray for us. We are battling demonic forces.

    12
  12. What SNS said.

    Back when I worked in the hospital I warned people to get out as fast as they could or we would kill them. Clots form from laying in bed all day, bust loose and hit your heart, lungs or brain. We’ll bring you someone else’s infection. We’ll bring you someone else’s meds. We’ll miss your symptoms of acute change because we have 5 other patients running us ragged and management could give 2 shits about anything but their bonus.

    And charge you $8000 per day just for your standard no frills MedSurg room.

    8
  13. Hoo Hoo,

    Sure there are, we (daughters) are also willing and able to bring him to our homes and provide care.

    But….. mother has POA and makes all decisions.
    Father has no rights.
    She is estranged from us and also is being manipulated by demonic forces.

    5
  14. …it sounds like you need to have your mother move your father into a different nursing home, @JoJoMittens.

    I’ve spent a lot of time in nursing homes in various roles, and they are universally their own subcategory of “Awful”. The staffs are not the cream of the crop, the facilities are generally poorly maintained, and the overall attitude is an almost Hospice-like one of “You’re old, so DIE already!”

    …when I was a callow youth, my first exposure to nursing homes was when my father had to move my grandmother to one near us from 2 states away, because she was what was then called “senile”, and all the cardiac and orthopedic problems endemic to old age as well. With both parents working and multiple school-age kids, it just couldn’t be done that she could live with us and get the 24 hour care she needed.

    …I didn’t process everything at that age and wasn’t invited to most things concerning the Home, but I gathered my father took umberage at his mother being strapped to a bed for keepers’ convenience, and left to pickle in her own urine because no one could be assed to bedpan her. This is also when I learned that bedsores could be measured in degrees like burns, but decubitus ulcers go to FOURTH degree. Long story short, he had to cycle her through SEVERAL nursing homes just to find ONE that wasn’t sullenly hostile…but DID finally find that ONE.

    No, they DON’T like being made to work, but that’s THEIR failing, not YOURS. Might have been interesting to go before a judge and discuss your problems if they DID try a restraining order, but they probably bullied your mother too, so it wasn’t going to go there anyway, and they knew it.

    …I don’t know your, his, or her circumstances, so I can’t advise you better than you can advise yourself, but I CAN do as you ask and pray the Ulimate Wonderful Counsellor leads your family through this trying time.

    Lord, please have mercy on these who are burdened for their own father, who only want him to have the full life You apportioned to him and to live it without pain and privation needlessly inflicted bu others. Please counsel that family in how You would have them best serve these temporal needs, subdue the demons that drive those who feel themselves inconvenienced by the needs of supporting life that they took upon themselves willingly, lead them to an understanding of the error of their ways to the benefit of ALL their patients.

    And as you comfort and guide this family, Lord, please touch this man, thus father, this husband, give him healing as only You, the Ultimate Physician, are capable of, and has he draws to the end of the days You allot for him, draw him closer to You so all may have the blessed assurance that, when he at last lays his trophies down as we all must one day do, that they can TRULY know that absent from the body, means present with the Lord.

    And we ask this all, as You command us to do, in the precious name of Jesus, amen.

    God Bless,
    SNS

    4
  15. Federal law mandates anyone coming into a ER must be treated and stabalized. That mean every illegal alien, bum, etc who comes in for whatever, gets Rolls Royce treatment on us, and they clog your wait.

    Vote democrat, and don’t complain.

    3
  16. I’m a nurse. Last September, my wife walked into a hospital for scheduled cardiac surgery. 22 hours later, she was dead. During administration of anesthesia for surgery, my wife’s heart stopped. and she was without blood pressure for over 3 minutes. They sent her to the ICU, but then pulled her from there, still under sedation and not having regained consciousness, and proceeded with the surgery. There was not any attempt or ability to assess for possible cognitive or physical deficits from lack of BP and oxygen to her brain, prior to the proceeding. During extubation in post=op recovery, which would have been done after a return to consciousness, her heart ruptured at the suture site and she died. They told me ‘this has never happened before.’ I had spoken with everyone of her caregivers about concerns with diagnosis and was repeatedly talked down to, as I tried to share my 22 years of observation of her malady during our 30 year marriage.
    Neurogenic pulmonary edema is real.
    Anyway, they boast themselves as being ‘an educational hospital.’ As uncomfortable as it is, I am now in the process of helping them to learn something. And I ain’t backing down for nothing. The lead surgeon violated numerous protocols as he ‘played cowboy.’ He was quite proud of himself and boasting about the pre-surgery events, before she died. Not so now.
    I used to post here a lot more, but this turn of events has changed everything. Hopefully I’ll get back to posting more.
    Love you guys and this site. Cherish those you love- we are here for but a short time.

    6
  17. …sorry, JoJo, didn’t see your exchange with Hoo Hoo while I was tapping my reply in.

    It’s unfortunate that your mother is set upon and estranged, but if appeals to filial piety won’t work, maybe economic appeals will?

    No matter your insurance situation, nursing homes are HUGE financial burdens on ANYONE. If you and your sisters are willing to take on that role, that would be SERIOUS savings to HER, and an appeal to the LEFT brain instead of the RIGHT brain can sometimes sway both to side of reality.

    Again, I don’t know anyone involved in this situation, and YOU certainly DO. If you are not so divorced that you can still talk rationally, perhaps its a tack you can take, maybe from whichever sister is the closest to your mother…

    2
  18. …and Hoo Hoo, you probably know this from the fact that you’ve seen previous post from me praising and defending nurses, but I want to assure you that I am NOT condemning your entire profession. I realize that, even more so in this modern age, hospitals are miserly places when it comes to staffing and that our nurse, like ALL nurses, was likely very burdened and also constrained by the rules of her institution to do what she did.

    That understanding probably made me delay longer than I would have in calling the Critical Response team in myself, but the outcome was still good, thank the Lord.

    …that said, you know as well as anyone that nurses are human, and there are good ones and not so good ones. Having been on the other side of the patient care fence, I operated under certain principles that I’m sure are not unfamiliar in nursing, such as NEVER abandon a patient to a lower level of medical care in crises, NEVER allow panic to grow in patients or families, and above all, when faced with a choice, even if it COULD mean your career, ALWAYS error on the side of life.

    It worked for me personally. I never had an inquest myself after 10 years of doing that, and never had any legal issues or lost a patient that wasn’t going to meet their reward regardless of my actions or inactions, as confirmed by our Medical Director. Granted, Standard of Care expectations rise as your training rises and is very high indeed at the RN level, but I would think that lifesaving actions by a nurse would be pretty much the same to all nurses, as all are dedicated first to the preservation of life.

    The fact that we HAD been abandoned when my son was CLEARLY flunking his ABC’s was what was shocking, because I was there with every expectation that this WASN’T possible. I won’t name the facility for obvious reasons, but it’s a PREMIER hospital in it’s class, NATIONALLY recognized and WORLD renown, and were I to name it, wherever you are, it’s very likely you WOULD have heard of it. And also I had high expectations of the nurses based on all my previous experiences and those we had on the surgical floor, which just made it seem that much more a betrayal.

    I’m pretty sure she could have called in additional personnel if she was overwhelmed for some reason. It was a hospital. She simply chose not to, forcing ME to act in her place.

    It is this SPECIFIC situation that arouses my ire, NOT nursing in general. Were I to list his signs and symptoms to you, I suspect you would agree.

    Nurses in general are blessed and are a blessing, and do all the REAL work in a hospital, or in ANY medical venue. I never doubt that, and I respect and love nurses for all they do.

    But we are all human, nurses no less so than anyone. That’s my only point here.

    As President Reagan once said,
    “Trust…But Verify”.

    This is appropriate in a medical milieu, also.

    God Bless,
    SNS

    1
  19. …oh, my Lord, @toby, no one should have to go through what YOU went through. Sometimes, I think it’s WORSE on providers, because we know EXACTLY what our loved ones are going through, and don’t get to be ignorant of their deteriorating conditions or lapses in medical care like people who have not been exposed to the wonderful and terrible world of patient care.

    I can’t pretend to have even a basic level of post-hospital experience, but even with my very limited training there seems to be a large number of very questionable decisions made from just what you wrote. Proceeding with surgery after severely complicated anesthesia such as that is VERY questionable as you say, and if she was down that long, it does raise several concerns even outside of the neurological implications, such as the heart muscle being VERY sensitive to oxygen deprivation, then proceeding with HEART surgery IMMEDIATELY after a deprivation episode. And extubation on an unconscious surgical patient? Who had issues with oxygen deprivation to BEGIN with? I would SERIOUSLY need that explained to ME, were I in your place, as well, this again is pretty basic ABC stuff so WHY?

    I had missed you from these pages, but people come and go here and not every one does every thread, so I had hoped it was no more than that. I feel for your loss, especially since it was very likely what we would call “preventable”, but you must not take it to your own heart, as you are doing what you can to prevent another tragedy such as you have experienced, so you are in a very real way still working to preserve life, as we all must do.

    I pray that your wife is joyously awaiting you in Heaven, as you toil here on Earth for the short time apportioned to us all. I pray for you to find hope and healing, and that your efforts produce good fruit and hold those that need justice to be accountable on Earth as they most assuredly will be before God. May you still find comfort and joy in those who you love and are loved by, until it is your time to be reunited with your wife at the feet of the Lord.

    Until that time, be here with our welcome. This is a community, and we do try to uplift each other. Know that we are all in this together, and never be afraid to share your burdens.

    God bless,
    SNS

    1
  20. I was put in the hospital on a Friday night with pneumonia. I was having a great deal of trouble breathing and really sick. No one from the hospital ,except a person who delivered meals came into my room the entire weekend. My friends and family came and wanted to call the doctor, I said no, I wanted to wait and see how long it took for anyone to arrive. I did make many attempts to call the nurses station. I had no IV, no medication, and no water. When meals were delivered I asked for extra water. I started to wonder if I missed an alarm to evacuate!
    The first person in my room on Monday morning was a cheerful guy telling me he was here to take a survey of my experience in the hospital. I said “Boy did you enter the wrong room”. At first he didn’t believe me. I told him to check my chart. Next, I called my doctor, who was more than upset. After that call my room was full of nurses and doctors.
    I decided to wait for the hospital bill to arrive before I filed my complaint. The bill had a zero balance. I guess that was suppose to keep me quiet. Next, I reported the event to the State Medical Board. I was never privy to a resolution.

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  21. SNS the only thing that keeps me going in this work is by getting up every day asking God to make me the answer to someone else’s prayer. Every day that I get through is strictly His will. That, and the rage I feel when hearing of people being abused and neglected by the medical complex. Being in hospice, the stories…. all I can say is Jesus wept. The only thing harder than doing hospice nursing is leaving it.

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