How KM has helped me at work!

[armitage]

I was asked in the “Why Krav?” thread by kvmorl to post a few examples of where KM has come in useful in my current line of work (Hospital Security) – so here goes!

As you can imagine, we deal with a wide variety of patients and visitors at the hospital, particularly in the ER – aggressive drunks/drug addicts, drug-seekers, pyschiatric patients etc. Some you can deal with by using verbal de-escalation, others require more physical methods – a lot of patients we deal with will be on some type of Medical “Hold” – they are confined to their bed, their room, or the hospital, and we can use (reasonable) physical force to prevent them from leaving if necessary (we sometimes joke our job is a cross between a Correctional Officer and a Bouncer – sometimes we throw people out, sometimes we have to stop them leaving!).

With the following “encounters” bear in mind that we have no weapons apart from handcuffs – the Self Defense training the hospital provides is a few basic “moves” to do which are practised at very slow speed with a totally compliant partner, and to be quite honest are pretty unrealistic (e.g. catching someone’s hand mid-punch and pushing it into an arm-bar!!).

Probably the most “extreme” situation I had to deal with was when a drug-seeking patient had come into the ER demanding he be given certain painkillers or “Someone’s going to get hurt”. He was discharged fairly rapidly, and it was decided to escort him out through the Ambulance Bay doors because that was a quicker access to the street – less time for him to cause a problem. The guy got as far as the final set of doors, when he suddenly dropped to his knees and claimed his “back had locked up”. We offered him all kinds of assistance to help him move again, and were met with a barrage of bad language and threats.

We then got notification a Trauma was about to arrive, so we needed to clear the way – myself and another Security Officer told him that we were going to help him up into a wheelchair…as we each took one of his arms, he suddenly leapt up (It’s a miracle – the back was healed!) , swung around causing me to lose grip on his arm, and starting swinging punches at the other Officer. The guy was about 5’11, 280lbs (ex-Football Player), and I immediately responded with a Hammer-strike into his back, a knee to the lower back, and that then knocked him down far enough so I could do an improvised upper-body tackle with my arms ready to apply a choke-hold as a last resort (in case things got really bad!!). As it was, that knocked him to the ground where we were able to get him into handcuffs (had to use 2 sets as his arms were so big!!).

A time I used the 360 Defense was when we had a psychiatric patient who was extremely delusional (and thought I was a KGB Agent with my British Accent!!). He had previously assaulted another Security Officer, and was in restraints on the bed. The Nurse decided to let him out of restraints so he could use the Bathroom…and then walked out and left me on my own. The patient came back from the Bathroom (I was holding his IV Bag round the corner while he went!) – I asked him politely to get back into his bed…his response was “I don’t think so”, and he then attempted to punch me with a jab! I was able to react quickly and throw his IV Bag back on the bed, and deflect the punch with my other arm. I then trapped the arm he’d tried to punch me with and arm-barred him down (had to stop halfway to the ground as he was about to hit his head on the metal part of the bed!). From there it was easy enough to keep him restrained until I got back to assist with putting him back into restraints.

A lot of the “little” things I learnt in KM have come in very useful too – often a patient will try to grab my wrist as I’m tying a restraint down, and I’ve always used the break-away techniques I learnt in KM.

With regards to “take-downs” I’ve usually used the ones which involve using the head/arm as the guiding body part – it would be insane to try to do the traditional “rugby tackle” or MMA style below-the-waist in the hospital environment as there’s so many things you could easy whack your head on. (Apologies if I don’t know the exact names for the “moves” – suffice to say that they were all things I’d learnt at various times in my KM training).

Perhaps the biggest thing I’ve been able to use from both KM and F.A.S.T Defense is the “warrior spirit” – being able to react to a situation and not freeze up, always blading my body to a potential attacker, and being able to resolve situations quickly and effectively without it turning into a drawn-out fight. Equally so not letting the “red mist” make me become too aggressive and use excessive force (after all – our aim is to get the patients healed and out of the hospital again, not extend their stay!!).

Interestingly, I haven’t actually formally trained in KM in over 3 years (no locations near me!) – but the principles are still there and I really hope to get back into training again soon. I’m thinking about making a move into the Corrections line of work, and relocate to either the Pacific NW, or the New England area (both of which I know are teaming with KM training locations!).

[rd672]

Re: How KM has helped me at work!

quote armitage:

I was asked in the “Why Krav?” thread by kvmorl to post a few examples of where KM has come in useful in my current line of work (Hospital Security) – so here goes!

As you can imagine, we deal with a wide variety of patients and visitors at the hospital, particularly in the ER – aggressive drunks/drug addicts, drug-seekers, pyschiatric patients etc. Some you can deal with by using verbal de-escalation, others require more physical methods – a lot of patients we deal with will be on some type of Medical “Hold” – they are confined to their bed, their room, or the hospital, and we can use (reasonable) physical force to prevent them from leaving if necessary (we sometimes joke our job is a cross between a Correctional Officer and a Bouncer – sometimes we throw people out, sometimes we have to stop them leaving!).

With the following “encounters” bear in mind that we have no weapons apart from handcuffs – the Self Defense training the hospital provides is a few basic “moves” to do which are practised at very slow speed with a totally compliant partner, and to be quite honest are pretty unrealistic (e.g. catching someone’s hand mid-punch and pushing it into an arm-bar!!).

Probably the most “extreme” situation I had to deal with was when a drug-seeking patient had come into the ER demanding he be given certain painkillers or “Someone’s going to get hurt”. He was discharged fairly rapidly, and it was decided to escort him out through the Ambulance Bay doors because that was a quicker access to the street – less time for him to cause a problem. The guy got as far as the final set of doors, when he suddenly dropped to his knees and claimed his “back had locked up”. We offered him all kinds of assistance to help him move again, and were met with a barrage of bad language and threats.

We then got notification a Trauma was about to arrive, so we needed to clear the way – myself and another Security Officer told him that we were going to help him up into a wheelchair…as we each took one of his arms, he suddenly leapt up (It’s a miracle – the back was healed!) , swung around causing me to lose grip on his arm, and starting swinging punches at the other Officer. The guy was about 5’11, 280lbs (ex-Football Player), and I immediately responded with a Hammer-strike into his back, a knee to the lower back, and that then knocked him down far enough so I could do an improvised upper-body tackle with my arms ready to apply a choke-hold as a last resort (in case things got really bad!!). As it was, that knocked him to the ground where we were able to get him into handcuffs (had to use 2 sets as his arms were so big!!).

A time I used the 360 Defense was when we had a psychiatric patient who was extremely delusional (and thought I was a KGB Agent with my British Accent!!). He had previously assaulted another Security Officer, and was in restraints on the bed. The Nurse decided to let him out of restraints so he could use the Bathroom…and then walked out and left me on my own. The patient came back from the Bathroom (I was holding his IV Bag round the corner while he went!) – I asked him politely to get back into his bed…his response was “I don’t think so”, and he then attempted to punch me with a jab! I was able to react quickly and throw his IV Bag back on the bed, and deflect the punch with my other arm. I then trapped the arm he’d tried to punch me with and arm-barred him down (had to stop halfway to the ground as he was about to hit his head on the metal part of the bed!). From there it was easy enough to keep him restrained until I got back to assist with putting him back into restraints.

A lot of the “little” things I learnt in KM have come in very useful too – often a patient will try to grab my wrist as I’m tying a restraint down, and I’ve always used the break-away techniques I learnt in KM.

With regards to “take-downs” I’ve usually used the ones which involve using the head/arm as the guiding body part – it would be insane to try to do the traditional “rugby tackle” or MMA style below-the-waist in the hospital environment as there’s so many things you could easy whack your head on. (Apologies if I don’t know the exact names for the “moves” – suffice to say that they were all things I’d learnt at various times in my KM training).

Perhaps the biggest thing I’ve been able to use from both KM and F.A.S.T Defense is the “warrior spirit” – being able to react to a situation and not freeze up, always blading my body to a potential attacker, and being able to resolve situations quickly and effectively without it turning into a drawn-out fight. Equally so not letting the “red mist” make me become too aggressive and use excessive force (after all – our aim is to get the patients healed and out of the hospital again, not extend their stay!!).

Interestingly, I haven’t actually formally trained in KM in over 3 years (no locations near me!) – but the principles are still there and I really hope to get back into training again soon. I’m thinking about making a move into the Corrections line of work, and relocate to either the Pacific NW, or the New England area (both of which I know are teaming with KM training locations!).

Sounds like you have a very good base for growth,good luck on your training

[Author]

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