![]() ![]() "After a slight delay, I heard the alarm sound and help arrived. "I started screaming at the top of my lungs," she told the committee, "praying that someone would hear me." She wasn't sure if she'd properly pulled the alarm, she said. The twisted murderer can be heard confessing to brutally killing up to 15 young men between 19 in various flats in London. As she was escorting him up a stairwell, she said, he tripped her, pinned her to the floor and attempted to rape her. Jill Robinson Published: 11:24 ET, Updated: 11:27 ET, MEMORIES of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes has left Netflix fans horrified with killer Dennis chilling recordings. But workers say the hospital remains a dangerous place for staff.Īt a June 2014 hearing of the health committee in California's State Senate, psychiatric technician Stephanie Diaz gave tearful, halting testimony, recounting her recent experience with one patient. To address that shift in the population, Matteucci says, Napa State has added more hospital police. Some have been been involved in criminal gangs. Today, a substantial majority of patients at Napa State come through the criminal courts. But there was no criminal wrongdoing involved. Courts ordered people to the psychiatric hospital because acute or chronic symptoms of serious mental illness suggested they were a risk to themselves or others. Until about 20 years ago, most of its patients were civil commitments. ![]() She says that the heavy use of the alarm system illustrates how difficult it can be to serve such a challenging population "in a very complex, active environment that was not built for a forensic patient population." I want a little help before I engage that patient.' " "Staff might see a patient escalating and say, 'That's looking a little precarious. The tags get pulled 11 to 17 times a day, Matteucci says. Staff members sound that alarm frequently. Soon after the murder, as president of the union representing psychiatric technicians, Jarschke helped form the Safety Now Coalition, a group of employees who got together to demand change.ĭolly Matteucci, the hospital's executive director, says the hospital has made changes in the past five years - like limiting the ability of potentially dangerous patients to walk around freely.Ī 2013 flier, still posted on a union hall bulletin board, details a remembrance day held for Donna Gross, the Napa State Hospital employee murdered on hospital grounds on Oct. "We always look back five years and say, 'Wow, we were really dumb back then.' " ![]() "When you think about it today, that's almost ludicrous that we would do this," Jarschke says. But back then, Jarschke says, the alarm only worked inside the buildings - not outside, where Gross was murdered. "It's there."Īt the time of Gross' murder, staff members all carried alarms to call for help. "Everyone who was here the day that Donna died on these grounds has PTSD, and we will never be able to address it," says Michael Jarschke, who has worked as a psychiatric technician at Napa State for 32 years. 23, 2010, that psychiatric technician Donna Gross was murdered by a patient - grabbed, dragged and strangled to death. For staff at Napa State, this week marks a somber anniversary. ![]()
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