US Choking babies saved by nurses from suspect

  • 🏰 The Fediverse is up. If you know, you know.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Article (Archive)
Two nurses, a respiratory therapist and a hospital security officer saved two babies from being choked to death at Odessa Regional Medical Center Monday night, according to an Odessa Police Department arrest affidavit.

The affidavit details that Marcus McCowan Jr., 18, was at ORMC Monday evening because his girlfriend was in labor and he began acting oddly around 6:30 p.m.

Registered Nurse Taylor Frandenburg told police McCowan came into the nurses station in the Labor and Delivery area, grabbed her arm and made an unintelligible statement and the charge nurse made him leave. McCowan was then seen running back and forth in the hallway, which they thought was "odd and unreasonable."

A short time later, McCowan ran at "full speed" at Registered Nurse Haley Sanchez, Registered Nurse Kassandra Reyes and a mom who was being released from the hospital and holding a newborn baby in a carrier. He was screaming and yelling and he shoved Sanchez while trying to get into the nursery, causing her to hit a wall with her shoulder and fall to the ground, according to the report.


The nurses told police they saw McCowan try to get the baby out of the carrier and when he was unable to, he began to strangle the baby with both hands, causing the baby's skin color to change. Sanchez and Reyes were able to separate the baby from McCowan's grip after ending up in the lactation room, the report said.

Martha Fuentes, a respiratory therapist, heard the yelling, came to the nursery and chased after him when he ran into the nursery, an area not accessible to the public, the report stated.

Fuentes saw McCowan reach into the bed of a newborn baby and begin to strangle her, according to the report. As the baby's face and lips changed color, McCowan picked the baby up from the neck, shake her and tell her to "die."

Fuentes told police McCowan appeared as though he was going to throw the baby to the ground, but she placed her hand on the back of the baby's head and slowly escorted McCowan toward the ground "to reduce the possibility of (the baby) falling," the report stated. The baby was turning purple when Security Officer Lori Tavarez arrived and together they were able to get the baby away from McCowan.

When police arrived, they got McCowan into handcuffs despite the fact he was struggling and they found a THC vape pen on him, according to the report. During the search, the officers reported McCowan tried to get a corporal's gun from his belt.

As they were in an elevator getting ready to leave the hospital, McCowan tried again to get the same officer's gun, the report stated.

Online Ector County jail records indicate McCowan is facing the following charges: two counts of attempted capital murder, possession of a controlled substance, attempt to take a weapon from an officer, assault of a public service, resisting arrest, criminal trespass and assault. Records show McCowan has a San Angelo address.

Josephine C. Martin, vice president of communications for Steward Health Care, released a single statement when asked for an interview.

"The police responded to an incident at Odessa Regional Medical Center last night. In accordance with HIPAA regulations, we are unable to comment on any patient's specific circumstances."

When asked about security protocols and security staffing levels at the hospital, Martin said she wasn't familiar with them, but would ask ORMC President Stacey Brown for details. She later released the following statement:

"The safety of our patients and staff is our highest priority and we are in compliance with all regulatory security requirements. We are conducting a thorough review of the incident and remain committed to serving the needs of this community. We want to thank our staff for their tireless work on behalf of patients."

Two months ago, Odessa Regional Medical Center announced it had been recognized by Healthgrades as a 2022 recipient of their distinguished Obstetrics and Gynecology Excellence Award and Labor and Delivery Excellence Award. This distinction places Odessa Regional Medical Center among the top 5% of hospitals evaluated for overall Ob-Gyn care by Healthgrades, as well as the top 5% of hospitals evaluated for labor and delivery outcomes.

"We constantly strive to provide the highest quality care to our patients throughout every stage of life," Brown said. "In every step of the delivery process, our Women's Care Team works to bring the highest quality to our patients and their newborn children."

-----------------

This isn't like, big news or anything, so I guess the local paper forgot to include a picture. Here's one from another story.
AA12Bxf8.img.jpeg
 
Click to expand...
neverendingmidi said:
I thought most of them had key card access and such to keep people from stealing babies.
Click to expand...
Still got to open the doors at some point when they're leaving. In the end, even if they block the door with their body and push it all the way closed every time when exiting that part of the ward, a man is still going to be able to shove in and re-open the door to go through if he's within a few yards of the door when they're coming through. In this case, it's a guy they'd seen around his pregnant baby-momma, so it's not exactly unreasonable that they didn't anticipate he'd try to pop a couple babies.

I suppose you could have some trick rotating door deal that only allowed one person at a time and only allowed movement of a person in the direction of the nursery/NICU only if they'd swiped in from the external side, as opposed to when someone on the inside hit the door release button. Or prohibit opening any doors from the nursery unless the corridors are clear of people for ten yards in all directions. But that sounds a technical fix to a problem that needs fixing some other way.
 
neverendingmidi said:
How the fuck did he get into the nursery? I thought there was a bunch of security and such that you had to get through to get into there.

That hospital is going to have so many lawsuits from the parents, even more if any of the babies end up brain damamged from the lack of oxygen.
Click to expand...
As someone who has done hospital security its not nearly as extensive as you'd think, or hope. For example if somebody came into the ER when I was on a shift they would not be able to access the rest of the hospital without a guard opening a door for them, except for the exam room and ER section behind it but that was manned by a guard and nurses. But go in through the front door? Half the time there wasn't a guard on duty at the front desk (and that only became a thing during covid, before then it was some volunteer thing) so you could walk in without anyone noticing and walk into any of the main clinics and certain emergency areas or recovery areas without really being noticed or stopped unless you were acting strangely. Theoretically nurses stations were supposed to be manned at all times in places like maternity, the ICU, and ER intake and such but in practice nurses frequently were off smoking or having their lunch or bsing with other staff and as far as guards go its mostly a (very predictable) roaming guard post that means unless you happen to be at the same place a guard is supposed to be on his patrol route at a given time you're not likely to run into any security. There are not nearly enough medical staff or guards at hospitals at any given time so you'd be surprised what you could get away with if you really had a mind to and planned it out well. Hell you could put on a security uniform thats the right color and act like you belong and nobody will question shit. I've never once been asked for my staff id or to prove I was actually a guard. I could literally put on a uniform right now, walk into the ER, get let through the security doors to the main hospital, be given an access keycard to the psych ward, maternity or dementia ward and walk right into any of them and do anything without any of it being questioned. So could anyone else if they knew enough about the security company, had the right color clothing and acted like they belonged. If anyone does ask? 'i'm the new guy just got hired and finished training yesterday' nobody will question that as nobody gets told shit about anything

This is how hospitals are run in canada (they outsource their security to one or two companies so its usually the same companies providing security throughout the country) and i'll just point out that nursing homes are run the same way, and also received no training to deal with their jobs in said locations at all. As in they'll take you right off the street, give you an online course for a few days, give you some answers to the security exam (to the point i've heard of people failing, being taken aside given the answers and told to do it again) and then send you to deal directly with very violent and mentally unstable dementia patients. a job CCNAs and nursing staff are by law not permitted to do without appropriate training for dealing with such patients provided as part of their medical education

I would not be the least bit surprised to find out its exactly the same in the US and thats how situations like this happen. There is absolutely no legitimate reason that this pos should have been able to get in there and do what he did. None. This happened only because everybody involved was not doing their jobs properly and not being provided with appropriate staff numbers and training

SSj_Ness said:
It should be a crime in itself to have society rely on female security. They should have hulking men staffed as security, not fucking Lori.
Click to expand...
Funny you mention that. Most female security guards are like 5 foot 2 and obese and can barely walk without sounding like the wern by the time they get to the end of a hallway and the only one I met who wasn't like that was about 5 feet even, weighed maybe 90lb, did nothing but gossip with the nurses and go on weird rants about her girlfriend and for some reason kept wandering over to my desk reading notes I was writing down as part of my job. Competent? No, at one point she got pissy with me for writing down the names of patients claiming 'you're not supposed to do that' which you're not, normally and I don't, normally. The lists she was looking at were a name and description of a person i'd been provided with by the head duty nurse herself because they were expecting him to show up in the next couple hours and I was to send him through for treatment immediately without the usual paperwork and triage when he arrived, and the other was a list of people who had left from like 1am to 4am that the the same nurse had specifically asked me to write down as a way of confirming her own list when she did her nightly check on what admitted patients are still waiting in the ER for treatment and which have left of their own accord. The idiot guard refused to believe me, threatened to 'report me' (which is even funnier considering I both outranked her and worked for a different company so I don't even answer to her or her boss, and was doing what I was told to do) and had to be told by said nurse that what I told her was true, who also had to remind her security matters in the ER were my responsibility and that technically she answered to me because of the way the contract worked. I still don't know how she even got assigned to a hospital position when she was tiny as fuck and a grown man could pick her up and probably toss her across the room with one hand. It was basically manlet syndrome only with a tiny lesbian

So yeah, these are the people who are responsible for your safety at the hospital
 
Dysnomia said:
I hope his baby mama keeps him away from his own baby when he is inevitably released because "mental illness and high as fuck so he dindu nuthin' on purpose".
Click to expand...
It's Texas- I'm hoping the brain damaged baby's dad has cartel connections.
 
Almost no words..... Fuck this guy, he should go away for life! Or at least be left alone in a room with the fathers of the babies he attacked!
 
Last edited:
Basically all of what @WonderWino said (post is too long to reply to) but also people are terrified of calling the police or security on a black person these days and will stall on doing it until they're practically in the middle of a murder scene.
 
That headline is really something. I wonder why those babies were choking, and if it had anything to do with the suspect who was also present. I wonder what he was suspected of.
 
Socrates said:
Basically all of what @WonderWino said (post is too long to reply to) but also people are terrified of calling the police or security on a black person these days and will stall on doing it until they're practically in the middle of a murder scene.
Click to expand...
Yea if you overreact you lose your job, license, get sued etc.

They screen people so the public can’t get in but his girlfriend was there delivering so he was past that security. Once you are in you have access to pretty much every place but the nicu. The nurses are supposed to stop anyone acting shifty. They asked me what I was doing once when I was getting ice water at 3am and got lost.
 
I'm waiting for someone to Gary Plauche a nigger who they know will just get a slap on the wrist.

If I was the dad of either of these kids I'd have gone down to my truck, got my Glock out of my glovebox, and walked up to the cruiser with him in the backseat and emptied the magazine.

Show me a jury in Texas that would convict a father for punishing the man who could have potentially permanently damaged my newborn just hours/days after delivery.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom