So, yeah, I'm at the bar again with my client. I'll be here at least another 2-3 hours. So while I'm here thought I'd randomly share a story about a client from another company. As a caregiver, I've dealt with a lot of unusual individuals. However, my most violent was by a client who I will refer to as Joseph. Changed his name for privacy reasons, of course. But anyway;
So Joseph was a client I was often got. He was particularly dangerous compared to other clients I worked with. He was very aggressive towards women (there was a story going around he may have raped a worker in a previous company, but I can't confirm that) and was not allowed near children or animals -for reasons you really don't want to know. He was "okay" with men. But say anything to him that pissed him off he'd try to grab you [from the roots of your scalp] and rip your hair off or break your arm. He'd do the same with women but also tried ripping their breasts off. He was non-verbal. With that in mind, let's go with my story:
One early morning I started my shift and my coworker looks exhausted. She tells me, "Hey, Joseph has been up all night. The past 3 nights actually. He needs to sleep, you know he starts getting seizures if he's up for too many days. Could you ask him if he wants to sleep? He won't listen to me, obviously." So I agree and walk to his room. He's in his room, sitting on a couch watching tv, he's shaking slightly from lack of sleep. I pick up his blanket and go,
"Hey, Joseph. Heard you've been up a few days. Wanna try to sleep?" He looks at me for a moment and then goes back to watching his movie. I ask again to no avail. He's ignoring me. He has no plans to go to bed.
I walk into his room to put his blanket away. I didn't realize he was following me to his room. I make his bed and look behind me, Joseph is there inching his way towards me. Shaking with his hand stretched out to grab me. I'm in a corner. My coworkers are busy with other clients. I'm screwed.
"I gave up. You don't have to sleep. You can do whatever you want."
He is still walking towards me. He doesn't care. Keep in mind, I can't pin him or anything, it's against company rules and I'd get fired. He's also a strong dude. He once had a caregiver who was also into working out -which resulted in Joseph being very strong (he had a fucking 6 pack) -which with his anger issues, was a bad combo. With him approaching and my only exit blocked by him the only thing I can do is keep track of his hands to counter them with my own.
He goes for my hair and I grab his hand. He starts twisting his arm to loosen my grip but I hold on. I call out to my coworkers, "H-hey, guys. Joseph is acting out." No one hears me. He starts trying to go for my throat with his free hand but I grab that hand. "Guys! He's attacking me!" I hear shouts of "Oh fuck!" in the distance as they came towards me from across the facility. He starts pulling me into a different room and I get a burst of adrenaline, knowing if I used it I could probably knock him out easy. But with my job on the line I couldn't lose my cool.
My coworkers run in and one goes, "Shit, he's got you in a bad place. Alright, loosen your body and drop down. It should work." I knew that was a bad idea though. If I fell to the ground he'd get a chance to grab my hair. So I tell her no and tell her to unzip the jacket I was wearing. While this is happening Joseph frees his right hand from my grip and tries grabbing my neck again, in that split second I manuvered my arm against his and slam his arm to the wall. Not before he freed his left hand and grabbed my jacket. "I said unzip my jacket!" my coworker does and I get her to loosen most of it except the arms.
"Alright, now get behind him and getting ready to pull him back on my word." She understands and I tell her and she pulls him back and I jerk backwards, freeing my jacket from my body. He's holding it and my coworker and I run to a different room for safety. He glares at us, holding my jacket still. Looks at me, then the jacket, then me again. He drops my jacket on the ground and goes back to his couch to watch tv. I got my jacket back. But damn that experience was weird. He ended up having a seizure the next day from lack of sleep.
