By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – A woman distraught after finding out about her husband’s infidelity first injured herself and then took out her frustrations on the people who were treating her.
Officers were dispatched to the 33-year-old woman’s residence at about 5:14 a.m. on Saturday, July 22, after it was reported that she intentionally stabbed herself in her stomach twice. The person who called in the incident said the knife had been removed and the woman’s two daughters were applying pressure to the wound. Gila Valley Central is withholding the name of the self-inflicting stabbing because she has not been charged with any crime.
Upon arrival, an officer found the woman lying on the floor and the wounds, which were later determined to be 1 1/2 centimeters and 3 centimeters deep, were no longer bleeding.
The woman said she had learned her husband was cheating on her, and that led her to drink alcohol more heavily than normal.
She was then transported to Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center (MGRMC) by paramedics from Lifeline Ambulance.
While at the hospital, however, the woman became belligerent to the hospital staff, yelling and cursing at them, according to a Safford Police report.
The woman then attempted to leave the hospital against her doctor’s orders and attempted to remove her intravenous (IV) drip, causing blood to be sprayed on the medical staff.
The woman then struck an Emergency Room doctor in his face and scratched one of the nurses. ER staff managed to sedate the woman by injecting her with a sedative.
While they had been assaulted and had to “change their clothes due to blood all over them,” according to the report, the ER staff declined to press charges against the woman. An assault on a health care worker is under the same statute as an assault on a police officer and is considered an aggravated assault classified as a Class- 6 felony.
