BEAUMONT \u2014 Another hospital visit has ended with a patient accused of turning violent toward medical staff \u2014 the latest in a string of cases involving attacks on healthcare workers in Southeast Texas.<\/p>\n
Christopher Curtis, 45, of Beaumont, was arrested Sunday night and booked into the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on a 3rd degree felony charge of Assault of Hospital Personnel on Hospital Property. If convicted, he could face 2-10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.<\/p>\n
According to a probable cause affidavit for his arrest that KFDM obtained from Magistrate Marc DeRouen, officers were called to CHRISTUS St. Elizabeth Hospital at about 2 p.m. Sunday after Curtis allegedly became physically violent while receiving treatment.<\/p>\n
Police say Curtis had voluntarily gone to the hospital seeking treatment for psychological-related symptoms.<\/p>\n
But during his treatment, investigators allege the situation escalated.<\/p>\n
According to the affidavit, Curtis struck an attending physician with an open hand, hitting the doctor in the chest and arms.<\/p>\n
The physician told police the blows caused significant physical pain.<\/p>\n
The affidavit says the doctor was clearly identifiable as hospital staff, wearing hospital garments, a properly displayed St. Elizabeth Hospital identification badge and a stethoscope while actively treating patients.<\/p>\n
Police say the doctor did not have visible injuries.<\/p>\n
Curtis was taken into custody and placed in double-locked hand restraints before being transported to the Jefferson County Correctional Facility.<\/p>\n
He was booked shortly after 1 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n
His bond was set at $2,000, with standard conditions that include no contact with the alleged victim or the victim’s family.<\/p>\n
The case is particularly notable because it comes amid multiple recent incidents in Southeast Texas involving patients accused of assaulting nurses, doctors or other hospital personnel.<\/p>\n
Healthcare workers routinely find themselves dealing with patients who are frightened, confused, intoxicated, experiencing a mental health crisis or otherwise in distress. But when those encounters turn violent, hospital employees can become victims while simply trying to provide care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEAUMONT \u2014 Another hospital visit has ended with a patient accused of turning violent toward medical staff \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-826102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}