Heidi Linhoff is an RN in the emergency department at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, where she has spent more than 20 years caring for patients.
However, she spoke with Collin about an alarming trend and detailed stories of nurses and other staff suffering concussions, broken bones, and taking punches from young patients.
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She also spoke about how she has been a victim of assault herself.
“I was in charge of the department that day and we had an ambulance that arrived and it was a patient known to us and had violent behavior,” Linhoff explained.
“As I was talking, this patient was removing the seat belts very calmly, which I didn’t really think anything of because you have to take those off anyway in order to get off the gurney. Then all of a sudden, the next thing I knew, I got punched in the left side of my head. They just lunged forward and that was it. And there was no warning … it really was out of nowhere as far as I was concerned,” she explained.
Linhoff also recalled her injuries from the incident: “My left ear immediately kind of began to ring and I was really in shock.”
Even more alarming, Linhoff said her attack was one of six that happened in the same week.
“We’ll go weeks and not have any occurrences and then they’ll just be like multiple in one week. Last weekend, the weekend I came back from my assault, we had two staff members who were injured in the same incident by the one behavioral health patient. There’s a lot and there’s a lot of fear and there’s a lot of not knowing what to do anymore,” Linhoff explained.
Lack of safe rooms inside her hospital
While the young patients who assault hospital staff may not face consequences, the hospital staff themselves are left suffering the consequences and their injuries.
Linhoff said some people are leaving the profession altogether because of the assaults.
“Unfortunately, there have been some of the staff members who work in the emergency department who have had their jobs ended due to injuries and there are others who have chosen to leave,” Linhoff said.
“You know, we all have loved ones and families we go home to at the end of the day and we want to be whole when we go home … we don’t want lifelong emotional trauma from doing our job. And we want to care for patients and we think everybody deserves care. I mean, even people in a mental health crisis obviously deserve care, but the injuries have forced a lot of people to leave because they’re scared,” she added.
Granted, some hospitals are better equipped to manage young patients in a mental health crisis with safe rooms or, in some cases, safe wings. But as Linhoff explained, that’s not the case at every hospital.
In talking about her department, Linhoff said, “We are a small emergency department. We have 12 total beds and one safe room. And by that, I mean a room that can keep the patient safe as well as give them some seclusion time if needed.”
However, Linhoff also pointed out how times have changed.
“I have worked in the department from literally the day that we opened. And for years, that one room was more than enough. And a lot of the time it was empty. And now you could multiply it by 10 and it wouldn’t be enough on any given day or week,” she said.
Hospital located in Hennepin County
Collin asked Linhoff if the fact that this hospital is in Hennepin County has played a role in the situation.
Linhoff replied that the “concerning part about being in Hennepin County when this happened to me and when it happened to other members of our staff, there are those of us who have chosen to make reports with MPD and file charges or attempt to file charges given the situation … I myself was told by the captain that when they bring these cases and these charges like forward to the county attorney that they aren’t pursued, that the majority of them are dismissed … they don’t go anywhere.”
“I was literally dumbfounded that we do nothing, that it seems to be acceptable to, you know, assault a healthcare worker who’s there to help you,” Linhoff added.
For Linhoff, the lack of prosecution is quite like adding insults to the injuries: “You would hope that if prosecutors would pursue even one of these cases, that it would kind of send a message out there that this isn’t going to be tolerated, that you can’t do this. And it would save a lot of people from getting hurt. And it kind of feels like a slap in the face.”
Linhoff can’t help but worry what could happen next if nothing changes.
Fairview responds
A spokesperson for Fairview said in a statement that “the safety of our nurses, care teams, patients and visitors is essential to the care we provide at Masonic Children’s Hospital and across Fairview.”
“Violence against healthcare workers is a serious and growing challenge for hospitals and clinics across the country, and we take concerns from our team members seriously. Our staff deserve to feel safe while caring for patients and families, and we continue to evaluate our spaces, processes, staffing models and training to reduce risk and strengthen our response to escalating situations,” the statement said.
“Over the past several years, Fairview has invested in a range of workplace safety measures, including enhanced security presence, weapons detection, de-escalation training, behavioral emergency response support, regular review of safety events, and follow-up support for team members after incidents. We also continue to assess facility and workflow improvements that can help protect staff while ensuring patients receive safe, appropriate, and compassionate care,” it continued.
“Violence in healthcare is unacceptable, and we will keep working with our teams, and with our state and county partners who often refer these patients to us, to prevent, de-escalate and respond to safety concerns in ways that support both our caregivers and the patients who depend on them.”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
