PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Nurse advocates have been reaching out to our Michael Hoffman with a petition demanding stronger safety measures for health care workers. This comes after the brutal attack on a Palms West Hospital nurse.
With more than 9,500 signatures in just the last two days, the petition, inspired by the attack on 67-year-old Leelamma Lal, looks to get some much-needed protections for health care workers and harsher penalties for those who assault or intimidate them on the books.
WATCH: Petition advocates for 'Leela's Law' after nurse attack
Shocking video obtained by WPTV shows the moment 33-year-old Stephen Scantlebury was arrested — shirtless, shoeless and covered in EKG leads — moments after investigators say he attacked Lal and broke virtually every bone in her face.
“I looked at Leela, I looked at her as helpless,” said health care advocate Dr. Cheryl Thomas-Harcum. “I looked at her as a woman that had devoted her life to this profession, and at the the tail end of her career, she had to sustain something so vicious.”
Thomas-Harcum is one of the organizers of the petition started on Tuesday. It’s looking to get legislation in the books with more protections for workers like Lal. She says violence against health care workers isn’t new.
“There are people, many people, who come into a hospital and feel it's open sesame to abuse a nurse or health care worker,” said Thomas-Harcum. “I’ve experienced it firsthand. I would say on a bi-weekly basis. It could even be as frequent as a week.”
She says there is a culture in the medical industry where it’s just par for the course to experience this kind of violence.
“It's basically like, fill out an incident report,” said Thomas-Harcum. “But at the end of the day, you knew what you signed up for as a health care provider. This comes with the territory. So back to work. This has to stop. You have to give us the same level of respect that you would give law enforcement if you walked into a precinct."
Scantlebury is charged with attempted second-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement, because investigators say he was making derogatory remarks about Lal’s Indian heritage. So, I reached out to the Indian Nurses Association of South Florida. They tell me this kind of violence knows no race, ethnicity or creed. It’s an issue that affects everyone in a pair of scrubs.
WATCH: Nurse attack suspect will remain jailed following judge's decision
“The issue here is the risk to our health care workers, because there are no specific laws to protect the staff. There is a deficiency, and that must be addressed by lawmakers,” said Dr. Manju Samuel, advisory board chair of the Indian Nurse Association of South Florida.
WPTV reached out to local lawmakers about how this process moves forward. Rep. Brian Mast's office tells WPTV’s Michael Hoffman that people can encourage their local law makers to support current and future legislation.
