Winnipeg nurse recounts attack by scissor-wielding resident at care facility

*WARNING: Article contains graphic photo of nurse’s stab wound, below*

On Christmas Day 2021, Winnipeg nurse Gretchen Marasigan-Esteva was working at a long-term care facility when the unthinkable happened.

At around 9:30 p.m., she was finishing up her shift when she was attacked.

“I saw a resident pass by,” recounted Marasigan-Esteva. “He was running straight towards the nurse’s station. His hands were hiding under his jacket. I tried to stand up and run, but he raised his hand with orange scissors, and he tried to stab me, aiming for my face and neck area.”

Marasigan-Esteva says the resident grabbed her by her scrubs and tried to continuously stab her, while she defended herself.

“I remember holding his hand and preventing him from attacking me,” she said. “I’m screaming as much as I could. The other nurse heard me from the breakroom, and she was able to grab the resident from the back of his jacket and give me some space to crawl, run and eventually lock myself in the bathroom.”

It was only then she was able to call security and noticed she had been stabbed, sustaining a jagged wound on her left forearm that required stiches.

“Going through this trauma affects you as a person, as a whole.”

Four-and-a-half months since the attack, Marasigan-Esteva has not gone back to work yet. She says more staffing and better security measures are needed in long-term care facilities.

In December, Doctors Manitoba conducted a survey of physicians and found nearly six-out-of-10 physicians experienced incidents of mistreatment.

Joyce Kristjansson, the interim executive director at the Association of Regulated Nurses of Manitoba, says violence towards nurses happens on a regular basis.

“People are frustrated and angry,” said Kristjansson. “Nurses are the people that are right there, so people take out their frustration on nurses.”

Kristjansson says this is not a COVID-related issue, with incidents occurring well before the pandemic, but violence towards nurses has worsened over the last two years.

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Couple that with extreme staffing shortages, nurses have been faced with unprecedented challenges, she says.

“Nurses want to be part of the solution,” said Kristjansson. “We are experts in health care, and we want to be part of the solutions to the issues that are going on.”

Marasigan-Esteva wants to tell her story to create awareness, in hopes of preventing incidents like hers from happening to anyone else.

“Nurses need more than a piece of pizza and a bag of chips,” she said. “We need to feel heard, supported, valued and empowered. We are more than heroes. We are humans first, and nurses second.”

The nurse says she is still processing what happened to her, but is hoping to be back at work, caring for patients soon.

“I’m always excited to go to work and you don’t expect this to happen,” she said.