On the eve of International Nurses Day celebrated on 12 May, the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness has released the story of the hero nurse and her team who managed to calm down a shooter and, in the process, ensured no more lives were lost.
On Saturday evening, 7 May, Sr Diane Seale was busy with her routine handover process at New Somerset Hospital, when she received by a colleague in distress.
I could hear her screaming and my colleague who had answered the phone informed me that there was an altercation on the second floor.
Not knowing the extent of the traumatic event, she was about to face, Sr Seale told her colleague that she should carry on with her work while Sr Seale would attend to it.
As I entered the second floor, I noticed a body on the floor in the corridor, but my eye caught the patient with the gun in his hand. I proceeded to walk straight to him, made eye contact. I walked towards him, and I hugged him. I escorted him into the cubicle. He told me to close the door. That also afforded our staff to then attend to the policeman who had been shot. I felt I could calm him down a bit. Although I had noted two patients had been shot and were deceased, there were still two patients that were alive that I needed to save. I kept him seated, standing in front of him, so that these patients were kept out of harm’s way.
Sr Seale shared how her focus and energy remained solely on the person.
I did not want to take my eyes off him. I kept on telling him that we needed to talk. I dealt with him as a person. I wasn’t focused on what he had done or might still do. I asked him, ‘What happened?’ I reached out and touched him, and he allowed me to. This gave me confidence and I knew that he trusted me. He looked at me while my hands were still on his shoulders and said, “You are brave, you are the only one that has come in here.” At this point, all I wanted to do was to keep him focused and calm.
Sr Seale recalls she asked him several times to put the gun down.
I took him to my chest, held him close and he again allowed me to hold him. At least I knew there was this rapport was between us.
During this exchange Sr Seale was first unaware that the tactical unit had arrived and were armed and ready outside the cubicle doors.
My main goal was to isolate him away from other staff and patients. He eventually agreed, and while remaining seated I moved to the cubicle doors and then became aware that the tactical team were outside. I believed that I had some control over the situation. There were some moments the perpetrator and I engaged in conversation, and I could even crack a joke. If he spoke to me, I allowed him that opportunity, but I would always come back to the request to put the gun down. During our exchanges I lifted his face and said, do you see this uniform, I am here to save life and limb. Eventually he agreed for me sedate him. Through it all, I sat with him, stroking his forehead until he was finally sedated. At this point I could call the tactical team to subdue him. When I walked out, everyone was there. My team was there and safe. This gave me that encouragement I needed to push on.
Despite having just encountered this horrible experience, Sr Seale immediately engaged with her team and embarked on debriefing the nurses as well as patients. Metropolitan counselling services, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital psychosocial support and the Western Cape Health and Wellness team were all on site to offer support.
Through it all my main concern was that our patients were to be settled.
The Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, commended Sr Seale.
The story of Sr Seale is one of leadership, bravery, compassion, teamwork and true humanity. Her unwavering focus and attention on the suspected shooter ensured that countless lives were spared. She and her entire team exemplify the Western Cape Government’s values of being caring, competent, and responsive; and they are an example to us all. After the incident, I had the opportunity to engage with this team who worked to ensure that services at New Somerset were not impacted, despite what had taken place. I truly commend each member of the staff, under the leadership of Sr Seale, for having gone above and beyond the call of duty and truly upholding the hippocratic oath. Their selfless actions embodies the ethics nurses across the province uphold every single day and we salute them.
Professor Roger Dickerson, Head of the Emergency Centre clinical unit at NSH shares, “I think in any situation as horrific as the one our team faced on Saturday night, it comes down to people and the people itself are the people who responded to a calamity. These people although horrified themselves, pulled together as a team not only to support each other, but to provide safety and provide excellence of care to the patients remaining, doing their utmost to remain calm, whilst their worlds were shattering around them. To me it is evidence, not only of profound professionalism, dedication and the utmost of humanity but it is really indicative of the relationships of the staff of a small hospital, of all levels, that can pull together at a moment’s notice in times of absolute terror and provide such amazing outcomes.”
Sr Seale is a remarkable individual and that was before Saturday night. She was willing to sacrifice herself, her own safety and wellbeing to ensure the safety and wellbeing of others. And I have absolutely no doubt, that she saved lives on Saturday night, lives that would ordinarily have been lost…and really, it’s a miracle.
