When a social worker was stabbed repeatedly by a patient on Thursday afternoon at San Francisco General Hospital, the sheriff’s deputy assigned to provide additional security for hospital staff was petting a dog, according to an eyewitness interviewed by Mission Local.
The deputy had specifically been called to Ward 86, the hospital’s HIV clinic, because of concerns about the alleged attacker, who had earlier threatened hospital staff and was a known and feared presence at the clinic. But at the time of the stabbing, the witness said the deputy was not within eyeshot of the man from whom he was charged to protect staff.
The witness, an employee at the hospital’s HIV ward who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they intervened as the stabbing occurred, and pulled the attacker off of their colleague. This contradicts a statement from the Sheriff’s Department, which said the deputy “intervened immediately” as the attack unfolded. Sheriff’s deputies provide security at the hospital and other city buildings.
What’s more, the alleged attacker was purportedly a regular patient at the ward, and had made threats toward medical staff in recent weeks, the witness said. He had threatened a doctor at the HIV unit with bodily harm, and the doctor had reported the situation to the Department of Public Health, according to the witness. San Francisco City Clinic, a free clinic on Seventh Street, had also informed the unit of the same patient making threats there, the witness said.
“This could have been avoided on so many fucking levels,” the witness said. “We knew three weeks ago about this patient.”
Wilfredo Tortolero-Arriechi, 34, was arrested yesterday for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and mayhem.
The social worker is on life support, and sources say those who no him are saying their goodbyes at the hospital. in a statement, the Department of Public Health confirmed he is still in critical condition and declined to give additional information, citing medical privacy laws.
Ward 86,one of the longest-standing HIV clinics in the contry and a pioneer in HIV/AIDS care,is closed indefinitely and employees are not going in to work.
The ward treats many patients suffering from mental illness and behavioral health issues, stimulant-use disorder and schizophrenia, the witness said, and is not sufficiently equipped to keep staff safe. Threats of violence happen frequently enough.At a debriefing today after the incident, the source said staffers were asked to raise their hands if they had ever felt unsafe or been threatened at work.
“We all kept raising our hands,” they said.
Standard protections, meanwhile, are lacking: Staff don’t receive hazard pay, the rooms don’t have panic buttons, the building doesn’t have metal detectors – after this incident, the hospital told staff it w
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