ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — City leaders and hospital officials applaud the quick response to the Albany Med lockdown. But a group of nurses are upset and feel more could have been done for their safety and protection, especially after Monday afternoon’s lockdown left some people on edge.
“As a transport employee arrived at the room to transport his mother to a different location, he wanted to spend more time with his mother, and pulled out what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it at this employee, and asked him to please leave the room,” Steve Smith, Albany Police PIO said.
What appeared to be a handgun was a BB gun, but a search after the suspect was in custody found a shotgun. That has some people wondering how the suspect brought weapons into the hospital.
Kathryn Dupuis is a nurse who started at Albany Med 25 years ago and claims that there has never been training available for employees for these situations.
“I have requested that we have mandatory active shooter drills in the hospital on a regular basis and have all staff being able to attend so that we’re not caught not knowing what to do in this situation,” she said.
Dupuis was not at work yesterday, but she has been talking to her co-workers who were inside during the lockdown.
“And it actually broke my heart because they were scared to death,” she said. “A couple of them didn’t know what to do, and they wanted to leave and go home to their families.”
Even though no one was hurt, she would still like to see the hospital hold evacuation drills, install metal detectors, and have a police substation to help keep the staff and patients safer.
“And it can be very scary sometimes when you have a violent partner or somebody in the family that wants to go after a patient, and you’re caring for that patient, and that’s what’s going on,” she said.
We reached out to Albany Med and Albany police for a comment, but they have yet to respond. Dupuis says she hopes hospital officials will consider plans to help prevent something like this from happening again.
“I mean, these are things that we could be working towards in order to make a safer environment,” she said.
