Patient Trashes Seattle Emergency Room, Starts Fire, Causing Over $100,000 In Damages

A Seattle man is facing charges for allegedly “destroying” a hospital trauma room, lighting a fire, and attacking nurses and security guards, police said.

The Seattle Police Department said officers responded at around 10:15 a.m. Saturday to reports of a patient on a rampage at Harborview Medical Center, and arrived to find “almost everything in the room had been thrown around or tipped over as staff and security were fighting with [the suspect].”

According to investigators, the suspect, who was not immediately identified, had arrived at the hospital Friday night with wrist injuries. After he was treated and cleared for discharge, he allegedly “became enraged and began throwing items, spitting on, and kicking the nurses and guards,” police said. The man also allegedly created a “makeshift noose” from plastic tubing and threatened to kill himself.

Hospital staff ultimately restrained the man after he allegedly “broke open a direct oxygen line and lit a bucket of medical equipment on fire.”

“Security and staff intervened as an active fire in the room with the broken oxygen line could cause an explosion within the hospital,” the police report stated.

Hospital staff estimated the man caused damages totaling more than $100,000.

The suspect was arrested and charged with multiple counts of assault, arson, property destruction, and interference with a healthcare facility. Police said the suspect is “known to be assaultive with law enforcement” and has “several” active arrest warrants.

He was transported to King County Jail by ambulance “under armed police escort.”