Security Irony
 

One of the patients I saw today had spent a week in the neuro ICU, six months of physical therapy, and six months of speech therapy. He had sustained extensive blunt trauma to the base of his skull.

Today, he has a slightly misshapen skull, he has an impressive scar, but he's exceptionally luck to be alive.

How did he sustain these wounds?
He was beaten with a hand-held metal detector or "wand."

The perpetrator wasn't from the TSA--it was a security guard elsewhere. But I found the irony pretty overwhelming.

Given the fact that HHMD are plastic and dont weigh a lot, I find this hard to believe.

True, if you're talking about the Garrett Superwands we use today. Not true if you're talking about those Fred Flintstone wands we had in the beginning that give out that high-pitched whine rather than beep.

At any rate, I agree with you about finding this story a little bit hard to believe.

He said that this one was actually round--I don't know if that's heaver or lighter than any other kind.

The other possibility is that my patient thought that it was a HHMD but it was actually something else.

In any case, he was beaten by a security guard, so I suppose it could have been a security guard.

I didn't see the police report, just the patient.

Now it sounds like a SAP. You can do that kind of damage with a SAP.

No, a flashlight
 

No, it sounds like a flashlight to me. One of those metal 4 cell battery types.

Your description sounds an awful lot like a Maglight or Kellight flashlight. A 6 D-cell, aluminum flashlight can do a lot of damage.

JR

If this was in Britain, I'd say it was a truncheon or a cosh. They bloody hurt, as any drunk crawling along the pavement late at night will testify to.

Quite a few beat coppers I know carry 4 or 6 D-cell Maglites. First one can blind the suspect with the beam concentrated on eyes. The anodized airplane-quality aluminum body is tough enough to inflict serious damage on the suspect. Two-in-one weapon.

Had an NCO who used to be an Military Policeman before he worked for me as my Physical Security NCO. He told me of this one incident when an unruly prisoner got beat up until he submitted. According to procedure, MPs are allowed to use their police batons because they will break apart after a certain amount of pressure which avoids unnecessary injury. They were prohibited, however, from using Maglites because they don't break and can inflict quite a bit of damage. He concluded his story with, "it was the damnedest thing, sir, but that prisoner literally ran into my flashlight...repeatedly!"

I still have the Kel-light I bought as a rooky in 1972. Still works. Has a few scratches and scars from breaking out windows in cars and a couple of burning buildings, but it is still in good shape. We were trained to never use it on a suspect's head as it could easily inflict fatal injuries, much more dangerous than a baton.

It wouldn't surprise me if an untrained or partially trained private security guard misused one.

JR

I made a couple flippant responses but want to delve into this a little more. Nothing was said about the circumstances of the so-called police brutality the OP is trying to suggest that occured. The assumption is that the police (or security officers) are always wrong whenever they use violent force against a person. Yes, illegal police brutality does occur; not trying to say that it does not. However, until we know the circumstances of this particular incident, I think it's too soon to start passing judgement. But then again, this forum thrives on quantuum leap judgements.

I haven't seen any evidence of "quantum leap judgements" in this discussion. I don't even think there has been any mention of "police brutality" except in your post. The OP was quite clear that neither police nor TSA were involved in the incident and that he had not seen a police investigation report on the incident. With injuries as serious as he described, it is almost certain that such an investigation was done, or should have been done. It is possible that the "perpetrator" (OP's words) has been charged with a crime - which could be warrented depending on the circumstances. There is rarely justification for inflicting such serious injuries except in true life or death stutations. We just don't know what the circumstances were. Most of the comments so far have been attempts to explain what might account for the injuries, since a "handheld wand" is etremely unlikely to have been the weapon used.

JR

WHOA! Who said anything about police brutality?

I just found this story ironic because my patient was beaten with an object designed to detect weapons.

The facts...
1. The patient told me that it was a handheld metal detector. I'm sure I could somehow dig through police reports and try to figure this out, but I don't really have time for that (nor do I care that much.)

2. I doubt that the security guard just beat my patient out of the blue... I'm sure that there was some sort of precipitating incident.

3. This whole thing happened several weeks ago and I saw the patient post-hospitalization. He was (obviously) beaten unconscious and does not have a clear memory of the events.

I found the story interesting to post because of the weapon used--or at least the weapon that the patient THOUGHT had been used to beat him. There could have been multiple weapons, particular flashlights, billyclubs, or the patient may have fabricated the whole thing.

Sorry to have instigated such inflammatory commentary--I just thought it was an interesting and ironic story (at least on the surface).

The assumption is that it was a hand-held metal detector and that a security guard beat the patient even though the OP admits later that the patient was incoherent. The title of the thread along with this post coupled with the description of the injuries sets the stage for suggesting the irony of how people who are hired to protect others have brutally beaten someone almost to death.

This post adds to the argument that police officers carry heavy maglites which can be used as weapons. (I commented on this with an anecdote regarding how military policemen used them. But I've maintained that I don't believe this person was beaten by a hand-wand.)

Here is where the quantum leap is made.

I rest my case.