Staff, patients at U.S. kids’ psych hospital thought gunmen were after them. It was all a drill – CBC

Michigan agrees to $13M US settlement after unannounced drill causes panic at state-run facility

Oct 21, 2024

When an announcement came over the loudspeaker that armed intruders had entered a children’s psychiatric hospital in Michigan, staff and patients flew into a panic.

Workers rushed to get children to safety, loading them up with soaps and shampoo bottles to throw at the shooters if necessary. People frantically texted their loved ones what they thought could be their final messages. Armed police officers burst onto the scene.

But it turns out there were no gunmen at the state-run Hawthorn Center in Northville, Mich. It was all a drill.

“People literally thought they were going to die,” David Horein, whose son Dylan was a patient at Hawthorn at the time, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

“I feel that this incident was a shining example of gross negligence on the behalf of the hospital.”

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will now pay out $13 million US ($18 million Cdn) to the impacted workers and children as part of a class action settlement. The hospital has since shut down to make way for a new facility.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/michigan-shooter-drill-lawsuit-1.7358403