Christine Jordan Sexton
The power and plumbing were disrupted at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital’s Bixler Trauma and Emergency Center after a patient “climbed into the walls.”
Sources tell Florida Politics that power was “taken out” and plumbing “destroyed” in two of the three “pods” where patients are seen.
Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Stephanie Derzypolski told Florida Politics that the facility is not in a “code green,” which she said occurs when there are “severe operational issues.”
“Our facility is able to handle whatever minor damage happened. There was damage to the ceiling tiles. There were lights out in multiple areas, but I didn’t hear it was major areas. So I think there are some lights out, but our facility was able to handle it all,” Derzypolski said.
“We are not in a code green, so whatever damage was done was not significant enough to go into emergency operation. It’s pretty minor, I guess is what I am saying.”
Hospital staff, Florida Politics was told, chased the patient around the emergency room for nearly 90 minutes before detaining him.
“I think our staff was quickly able to contain the situation and everything right now is kind of back under control and back to normal operations,” Derzypolski said.
“We deal with the mentally ill. We deal with people who are under the influence. This is not an unusual kind of thing. We care for people under many different circumstances all the time and we are prepared for it. These kinds of things are unfortunate but it’s not the kind of thing that’s out of the norm, unfortunately, in the world we live in.”
Derzypolski would not say whether the patient was arrested and referred the question to local law enforcement. The Tallahassee Police Department did not immediately respond to Florida Politics’ request for comment.
