Two nurses are talking about violent incidents that they experienced while working in the Emergency Department of the Eagle Ridge Hospital (ERH) in Port Moody, BC, saying that Fraser’s Health Authority (FHA) has not been able to provide a safe work environment and has tried to silence the employees who speak.
The veteran nurse Arden Foley says she is not returning to work due to persistent post -traumatic stress of a patient’s attack. Victoria Treacy says she was suspended and put under investigation by Fraser Health after she talked about a patient who threatened her colleagues with a machete.
The health authority said that Treacy, who currently works at the hospital as a casual employee of the FHA, was not suspended or under investigation.
However, women’s stories are two of many included in a lawsuit filed against the Health Authority in the Supreme Court of BC in Vancouver on June 6.
Two emergency nurses, whose stories appear in a lawsuit by the doctor of the emergency room against Fraser’s health authority, are talking about the concerns of violence and safety experienced by hospital employees, which include broken attacks of jaw and machete.
In the demand, the emergency doctor Kaitlin Stockton alleges that his work was threatened by the authority after he tried to warn patients about long delays in the emergency room.
It also alleges that the deterioration of working conditions in emergency rooms has led to preventable deaths, and describes a series of violent incidents against employees.
In one case, a nurse was allegedly strangled by a patient, and after eight weeks outside work, she suffered four ribs broken by a separate attack. In another, a doctor supposedly suffered wounds after being attacked by a Pit Bull in the emergency room.
“These events are so common that they are normalized and are rarely recognized by the management and leadership of the FHA,” the demand alleges.
Fraser Health told CBC News that he does not comment on the issues before the courts.
When CBC News asked about violent incidents, the authority responded with a statement.
“We are deeply concerned about the violent incidents that occurred at the Eagle Ridge hospital in November 2024 and January 2025 and the impact it had on the staff and medical staff,” the authority He said in the statement.
“In March 2025, we increased security personnel in the emergency department of the Eagle Ridge hospital in direct response to recent violent incidents. We also strengthen the training of the site and the increase in training on the floor to ensure that staff is fully prepared to respond effectively.”
Speaking after the attack
Treacy, 37, was working on a night shift in Erh’s emergency department in January 2025 when a man threatened staff shouting and wielding a large machete. Treacy said he called for security and helped his colleagues evacuate patients in the area.
He then spoke with several media, saying that the incident led her to fear for her own safety and that of her colleagues and patients. She said the same security standard should be in place in ERH than in larger hospitals in the region.
A few days later, Treacy says she was contacted by the travel nursing agency that hires her to Fraser Health.
According to the lawsuit, they told him that the health authority was asking him not to come to his next scheduled shift because he was being placed under investigation.
The demand States “after the FHA did not take measures or implemented changes after the Machete incident of January 14, 2025, the nurse who had been threatened by the patient made public to advocate for better security measures in ERH. In response, FHA initiated an investigation into the nurse and suspended it during the process.”
In a statement, Fraser Health said that “she did not suspend the nurse of the agency involved, nor began an investigation into her behavior.”
“We recognize that this was a traumatic and distressing event for all involved and we understand that health workers often face very challenging situations.”
But Treacy said in an interview with CBC, that his understanding was that he was being fired.
“YO [spent] A full weekend thinking that my work and my career were in danger, “he said.
“Talking about security and my personal experience and tell me not to return to work was extremely devastating and extremely worrying.”
Treacy said that she was a travel nurse under contract at that time, she never signed the documentation that prevented her from talking to journalists.
“My main message with those interviews was to ask for help and say that these are the things that are really happening,” he said.
“I never thought that asking for help and asking for security in our workplace would potentially affect me.”
The incident appears in the lawsuit against Fraser Health as an example of “a place of psychologically insecure and toxic work, where staff fears talking or defending patients themselves due to a culture of retaliation against those who do.”
Jaw Dyslococado, PTSD
Foley has worked as a nurse for 46 years, in a race that took her from the operating room to the emergency room.
Foley said he is talking now because he no longer works in the health authority.
She said that on November 20, 2024, she was on duty in ERH when a patient who had suffered an overdose.
Foley said he was in the process of decoupling a machine to download them, when suddenly and violently they kicked her in the head. The strength of the kick allegedly hit her against a wall.
According to the demand, “the assault left the nurse with a dislocation of the jaw, a brain shock and the PTSD. This nurse has not been able to return to work.”
Foley filed a claim against Worksafebc, pressed charges against the patient and resigned from her work.
“I took weeks not to think about him and the incident. I felt very angry at that time. I did not feel that I had done anything wrong and yet I was still blaming me, thinking that maybe I could have done different things,” he said.
“I have never experienced an assault, violence or aggression as I did that day.”
In a statement, the Health Authority said that “a Fraser Health Manager communicated with the nurse on November 21 to offer her support and communicate the support and resources available through Fraser Health for employees who have experienced violence in the workplace.”
Foley agreed to advice to help with the symptoms of his posttraumatic stress, but finally decided not to return to infirmary after talking to his colleagues.
“Everyone with whom I talked there told me how the situation had deteriorated: the working conditions, the greatest workload and instances of aggressive and abusive behavior towards our staff and other patients,” he said.
“Losing my identity as a nurse was what this incident has cost me: I lost my identity with my career and now it ends.”
The BC nurses union (BCNU) said that the number of violent incidents that force its members to take time out of work has been increasing. According to the union’s website, they represent about 50,000 nurses.
BCNU said the number of claims for nursing staff, including licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and nursing coordinators and supervisors, rose 48 percent of approximately 29 per month in 2016 to approximately 43 per month in 2024.
“None of us expected this type of violence to occur in our careers. It has been dramatically intensified even since I became a nurse and unfortunately we need better security measures,” Treacy said.
“It is not a world where I want to live, but unfortunately, these are the things we face.”
