ROCKPORT, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Police in Rockport say a patient at Pen Bay Hospital, who was being treated for bath salts use, went on a rampage Thursday night and did extensive damage to the room in the hospital's Special Care unit. Sgt. Travis Ford says when he arrived there was glass all over the floor, a window and the glass doors to the room had been smashed with a chair and medical monitoring equipment had been damaged and torn from the walls. Hospital officials did not have an inventory of damage or a dollar estimate. Police estimated the damage at $30,000.
According to police, the 19-year old patient had been brought to the hospital Emergency Room Tuesday night because of bath salts use. At some point he was transferred from the ER to the Special care unit-something emergency room doctors say is not unusual because of the medical concerns involved with bath salts patients. Doctors also say it's not unusual for symptoms to last several days. It was two days after being first admitted that the patient became violent.
Police say the man was sedated and then physically restrained for the rest of the nigh and most of the day Friday, until he was discharged and taken to jail. He is initially being charged with Aggravated Criminal Mischief and with Terrorizing. Rockport Police Chief Mark Kelley says it will be up to the District Attorney to decide if there will be any other charges.
Hospital officials say this is just the latest incident of a bath salts patient turning violent, and admit the risk to staff members and others is an increasing concern. Law enforcement and the medical community have been meeting in the Rockland area to find the best ways to cope with the growing bath salts problem. They say the unpredictable nature of drug users makes it very hard to deal with the cases, and that emergency room staff, EMT's and police have had to deal with many people who turned violent after taking the drug.