Hospital Patient Drowns After Jumping in Bay

A patient at Long Beach Medical Center drowned Wednesday evening after he left the hospital and jumped into Reynolds Channel. 

According to Richard Corbett, chief of the Long Beach Fire Department, the LBFD was alerted at 10:25 p.m. on Sept. 28 about a person that ran out of the hospital’s emergency room and jumped into the bay behind the building on East Bay Drive.

“Fire department units arrived on the scene within two minutes and confirmed that a male in his [30's] jumped into the bay and was submerged,” Corbett said.

Firefighters entered the water with police officers and began to search the area where he was last seen, the chief said. The Freeport Fire Department was called to the scene with a dive team, as well as the Island Park and Lido-Point Lookout fire departments with a light truck and an ambulance to stand by to cover any additional aided cases.

“A short time after divers entered the water, the victim was recovered in about 20' of water,” Corbett said.

Corbett said that man was removed from the water, CPR was administered and he was wheeled into the emergency room from the dock behind the hospital, but he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Sharon Player, LBMC’s director of public affairs, said that the 35-year-old non-Long Beach resident arrived on his own at the medical center’s emergency department at 10:14 p.m., where two staff members evaluated him in a treatment room.  

“Almost immediately, the patient became agitated and staffing was increased to three registered nurses and a security staff member attending the patient,” Player said in a statement. “The patient jumped from the stretcher, knocking one of the nurses to the ground and ran out of the emergency room. Staff pursued the patient and heard his voice coming from the channel. Simultaneously, staff inside the emergency department called 911.”

Player stated that initially both a hospital staff member and a police officer jumped in the bay to save him, and when the trained divers recovered him he was not breathing, and staff tried to revive him in the emergency room.   

“Despite extensive measures performed by the emergency department staff, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and the individual was pronounced dead at 11:14,” Player stated.   

Player said she could not legally disclose the man’s name, nor the reason he was treated at the hospital, but said that he was already upset when he arrived.

“He came in upset and in distress and it seemed to escalate a little bit once he got inside, and he suddenly became very agitated,” she said.

* This story was updated from the original version at 2:34 on 9/29/11.