Thread: Lockdown ends at Thomason Hospital

Lockdown ends at Thomason Hospital
By Stephanie Sanchez / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/20/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


Thomason Hospital is back to normal this week after nearly two weeks in lockdown to protect a Casas Grandes police official, El Paso Sheriff's Office and hospital officials said Thursday.
Earlier this month, the hospital was placed on lockdown after Casas Grandes public safety director Juan Etiene Castruita and assistant director Lorenzo de la Torre were flown to Juárez and brought by ambulance across the border to be treated. Both officers suffered gunshot wounds in Nuevo Casas Grandes, about 150 miles southwest of El Paso in Chihuahua state.

One Mexican officer was released a short time afterward, but another remained at the hospital until recently. The date was not available.

On Thursday, Thomason Hospital officials confirmed that both officers had been released and that operations were back to normal as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, said Thomason spokeswoman Margaret Althoff-Olivas.

Since the beginning of the year, she said, the hospital has been placed on heightened security two times for the treatment of high-level Mexican officials.

The first lockdown occurred in late January, when Cmdr. Fernando Lorenzo Sandoval was taken by ambulance to the hospital to be treated for gunshot wounds.

The second lockdown occurred earlier this month when the Casas Grandes police officers were placed under care of El Paso doctors, Althoff-Olivas said.

When asked whether having a hospital on lockdown is unusual, she said, "I certainly hope it never reaches the point where it is not
alarming to people that a hospital is on lockdown."
Putting the hospital on lockdown means all entrances are closed to the public, everyone has to go through metal detectors and armed police and deputies patrol the hospital.

Deputy Jesse Tovar, a sheriff's spokesman, said that though the hospital is no longer on lockdown, the Sheriff's Office is still maintaining a level of security.

"At no time is this issue going to go away," he said. "We have a response plan prepared, and we are prepared."

Some people, he said, do not understand what it means to have the hospital on lockdown. In a lockdown, he explained, people can enter and leave the hospital as they please, but stricter security measures are imposed for their safety.

Stephanie Sanchez may be reached at ssanchez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6137.







http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9640680

So now this is called lock down for shot police officers? Aren't they from South of the Border? Many hospitals today have the metal detection doors, already.

Dangerous job that Mexican Border! But our roads, cities and country are dangerous, too. It is not just across our borders, the lazy United States government should understand this by now.