Legacy

Let me introduce myself, I’m Gordon Westlake, the tale I’m about to tell you has a lot of factual truth.  Some of the facts have been modified to protect the guilty and innocent, and comply with the regulations set forth by HIPPA, you know, the privacy act thing that no one likes.  Other facts may be a bit distorted or embellished to make the tale more interesting, however as earlier stated, still much truth.

This story takes place in a Kansas State Hospital for the mentally ill. The hospital has a colorful history dating back to the late 1800’s, but that’s not what this tale is about. I was the Property  Officer for that Hospital.  My duties were basically a combination of accounting and administrative.  I saw to the hospitals budget for capital outlay, accounted for all capital holdings, furniture and equipment.  Inspected the wards frequently for furniture in need of repair and coordinated its replacement or repair with the Engineering/Maintenance Dept.

I carry master keys to everything, and while I was out on a routine ward inspection tour to see what their needs were, that this tale began.  I was just entering the Kirkbride Unit on the third floor of three connected very old Stone Buildings built in the early 1900’s.  I’d no more than gotten in the door and locked it behind me. It was a locked war;. when a huge  lummox of a fellow who had always been pleasant  in the past, even though he was a bit on the retarded side in addition to other problems, up and grabbed me and took my keys from me.

He said youse a bad mans we all donna wanta you here.  About that time I was hollering loud as I could “Charge Aide, trouble on the ward.”  No one come to my rescue.  The big guy said duh! I’m the Charge Aide now, and I’m going to lock you up.  That was not good; and while we’d been trained to take control of an patient and take down if need be; the training was the  semi passive approach, no hitting allowed. That constitutes patient abuse.  That could leave a smaller fellow like my self at great disadvantage, because someone this guy’s size was just about to much for one person to gently put down and control.  It would have taken at least three to control him.

Now to be fair, let me say at no time did the big fellow attempt to injure me, rather he just dragged me to the men’s room.  There were two bathrooms on each ward because some were coed. This one was not so that left an extra bath room.  Anyway he shoved me in and locked the door behind me.  There I discovered the Nurse, Charge Aid, and two other Aides  bound and gagged.

As good fortune had it, I wasn’t bound and gagged, nor even searched.  I guess the big fellow who was none to bright, when left to his own recognizance didn’t think of everything.

I got my pocket knife out and quickly freed the others, who started to chatter and I had to shush them because like I told them, we didn’t want to attract attention.  I then said we are going to quietly get out of here and get help.  That got some oh yeah! How, smiles?

Now we were on the third and top floor, above us was a huge, really huge floored attic.  It even had a finished room that aides would retreat to at night in the 1800’s and early 1900’s to be secure from patients.  Never sure what that logic was exactly, but that’s the way it had been.  Anyway, the ceilings in these old building were quite high, about fourteen feet to be exact, and in this men’s room was the pull down stairway to the attic.  Probably went unnoticed by most.  It could be pulled down by a long pole, then the aide and pole would go up for the night, and pull the stairs back up after themselves.

I said that’s our way out, we will go up into the attic cross over to another ward and come down and get help.  The Nurse said in a whisper good plan but where’s the pole? I could tell she hadn’t spent much time in the men’s room.  I said it’s in that very skinny closet in the corner.  She said that’s nice, it’s locked and they took our keys.  I said that’s true but they didn’t get my pocket knife.

I then put the blade on the floor and stepped on it and with a quick flick of the wrist snapped off the pointy tip.  Now I had a pretty usable screwdriver.  I proceeded  remove the screws holding the unit into the wall and when done I lifted it aside and bingo, one grab pole with hook on end.  It was long and waved around a bit but I finally got the hook in the right place and pulled the stairs down.

We scrambled up swiftly, and took the pole with us and pulled the stairs after us.  No way could they give chase if our being gone was discovered prematurely.  We lowered the stairs in the next wards men’s room and scrambled down and raised the alarm.  It wasn’t long before a half dozen Security Guards and a dozen extra aides pulled in from other wards were on the scene to deal with the uprising.  I said to Bill Hollohan our Security Chief that it was funny that even though they had grabbed all the keys they didn’t try and escape but kept the ward secured.

He said he thought he knew why.  Who ever was behind it wasn’t interested in escape, but rather had an another agenda.  He said we will know for sure when we get in there.  But I suspect the Nurse and aides would have been used as hostages to leverage news coverage and reporter interviews.

He went on to say that he would just about bet his next paycheck that the responsible patient was Napoleon (nick name), real name due to HIPPA regulations can’t be stated.  He went on to say that Napoleon had almost achieved his Masters Degree in Social Work.  Was a most brilliant individual, great organizer with tremendous leadership abilitie’s.  However was now justly or unjustly, correctly or incorrectly, considered demented and dangerous.

Bill said as the story goes, Napoleon got into some kind of great dispute with school officials over alleged misuse of college funds like in embezzlement.  They then framed him for something he didn’t do and he was kicked out of school just short of gaining his Masters Degree. At least that’s what he claims.  Apparently over all that he went into a deep rage a threatened to kill a few in front of witnesses and simply went berserk. Thus he is here.

Well sure enough, it was Napoleon behind it all.  He’d gained the support of the other patients and pulled it off slicker than a whistle.  He was surprised when he found out he was found out before he could even play his trump card.

How doe’s this tale end, well in a most surprising way.  The Psychiatrists examining Napoleon within the required ninety days declared him fully sane.  He then had to face criminal charges head on. But he had a great attorney.

By the time the attorney got through working on the witnesses, one of them cracked and admitted to embezzling and framing Napoleon. Well one thing led to another and not only was Napoleon found innocent, later legal proceedings awarded him with enough money that it almost bankrupted the school.  The offending officials are now serving time.  Napoleon went to another school and finished getting his Masters in Social Work.

Where is he today you ask?  Why he’s one of our newest and finest Staff Members.

As some say, alls well that ends well.