Hospital patient climbs in ceiling and gets pinned by steel beam, California cops say
An emergency room patient was rescued after getting trapped beneath a steel beam in the hospital’s ceiling, California police say.
The Upland Police Department said it got a call at about 9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 18, about a walk-in patient who entered a restroom at a hospital but never left, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“He’s removed ceiling tiles, and he’s now in the ceiling,” a hospital worker can be heard saying over a 911 call in a video shared by police.
Police said the patient “was believed to be under the influence of drugs.”
When officers arrived, they confirmed through surveillance video that the man “was seen going into the restroom and never coming out,” police said.
As officers could not immediately see the man, they called out for him, police said.
But he didn’t respond.
Video shows rescuers in the hospital bathroom with a ladder. They remove ceiling tiles as they search for the man.
“Due to the extremely confined space, maze of wires, plumbing, HVAC lines, etc., officers had to use a pole camera to look into the ceiling,” police said.
Officers quickly spotted the man “on top of a large HVAC unit and wedged under a steel beam in complete darkness,” police said.
Footage shows a man lying beneath the steel beam. His head is free, but his body appears to be lodged beneath.
When officers called the man’s name, he told them “he was stuck and couldn’t free himself,” according to police.
“Put your right arm up,” a rescuer can be heard saying in the video.
The rescuer continues to instruct the man on how to move his body to free it.
“Turn your head … that’s it. There you go,” the rescuer says.
Slowly, the man starts to free some of his body.
“All right. There you go,” the rescuer says.
The video then shows the man’s feet atop a rescuer’s shoulders.
“OK. Slide down,” a rescuer says. “You can do it just slowly. OK?”
With help from the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District, the man was freed after nearly an hour, police said.
“All in all, the subject caused in excess of $5,000 in damages to the ceiling, electrical, and HVAC system,” police said.
After he was freed, the man was arrested on a felony vandalism charge and booked into jail, police said.
Hospital staff managed to work around the incident and prevented any “interruptions to emergency room services,” police said.
Upland is about 40-mile drive east from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Hospital patient climbs in ceiling and gets pinned by steel beam, California cops say."
