Hospital patient arrested after trying to strangle nurse, police say

OGDEN — An Ogden nurse is recovering after police say a patient tried to strangle her with telemetry wires from a medical device.

It happened after midnight Monday in the emergency room at McKay-Dee Hospital.

“He asked for some assistance and the nurse was actually down a level below him and as she tried to get back up, he took those wires and was able to form a noose out of them and wrap around her neck and tighten them around her neck,” Ogden Police Lt. Eric Young said.

The nurse lost consciousness before a couple of co-workers could rush to her aid and pull Anderson off of her, Young said.

“It’s just scary for that nurse, obviously, trying to help somebody in an emergency room and render care and assistance to him and then to be put in that situation is terrible,” Young said.

The nurse’s neck was swollen and was bruised, police said, but she is expected to recover.

Investigators say it remains unclear why Anderson attacked the nurse. He checked himself into the hospital. Hospital staff reported he had been uncooperative, and even pushed another nurse at one point.

Still, Young said Anderson appeared to have no prior arrests.

“That was a common question of all the witnesses,” Young said. “They said they were able to make out that he was saying something — but not exactly what he was saying, and he didn’t say much to the officers as to why he’d done it.”

A spokesman for McKay-Dee Hospital declined to comment Tuesday.

Anderson was released from the hospital and booked into the Weber County Jail for investigation of aggravated assault.