University of Iowa Police: Woman Bit Nurse, Threatened Hospital Staff Over Drugs

A woman from Lenox, Iowa is facing misdemeanor assault charges after she allegedly attacked University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) staff after not receiving the amount of medication she felt she needed.

According to a criminal complaint by the University of Iowa Police, Jessica Jean Wilharm, 26, of Lenox became involved in a dispute with her doctor while being treated at the John Pappajohn Pavillion at 11:00 a.m. yesterday.

Police say Wilharm became upset when the doctor would not give her more medication, and when the doctor began to back away she became upset. At this point Wilharm allegedly said: "I might as well attack someone so I can go to jail," and charged forward yelling "I'm going to (expletive) kill you."

A nurse then attempted to restrain Wilharm, who tried several times to bite the nurse's arm before sinking in to the nurse's left bicep for several seconds before another nurse pulled her head away and Wilharm was then successfully restrained by staff, according to the complaint. Wilharm later allegedly said to the nurse: "Oh poor baby, did you get hurt?" The nurse later went to seek medical attention for the bite.

For the incident Wilharm was accused of two counts of assault on a health care provider, with one an aggravated misdemeanor and the other a serious misdemeanor. She was booked into the Johnson County Jail where she currently remains, according to online jail records.