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Hospital guard fired after handcuffing elderly cancer patient

Healthcare Security Weekly, September 24, 2007

A Brampton, Ontario hospital fired one security guard and suspended another after an internal investigation determined they used inappropriate force on a 76-year-old cancer patient, the Toronto Star reported.

The CEO and president of Peel Memorial Hospital apologized to the man for the way he was treated. The hospital will also train security staff in the use of restraint and train emergency department staff in conflict resolution and when it's appropriate to call security.

The patient's family filed a complaint in August alleging the elderly man, who they said was too weak to stand alone, was forced out of the emergency room by security, which issued a trespass notice, and left him on the sidewalk outside the hospital just after 5 a.m. A few minutes later, the security guards returned and cuffed the man's hands behind his back. When his family arrived to pick him up, they found he was sent home in a cab with red marks on his wrists and blood on his shirt.

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