Local physician’s new novel inspired by real hospital trauma…and drama

Local physician’s new novel inspired by real hospital trauma…and drama
Glengarry County author Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes

CORNWALL, Ontario – When Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes heard about a woman forced to give birth at gunpoint, she immediately recognized the inspiration for her newest medical thriller, Stockholm Syndrome.

In 1991, Richard L. Worthington, a 39-year-old father of eight, planted sticks of dynamite outside a Utah hospital before he entered the labour and delivery area with a shotgun and a handgun.

Could this happen at the Cornwall Community Hospital or the Glengarry Memorial Hospital in Alexandria (where she practices emergency medicine)?

“Of course,” said Yuan-Innes, who writes her thrillers under the name Melissa Yi. “Canadians tend to be trusting. Cornwall has security, and we do lock the main doors of both hospitals at night, but it just funnels people through the emergency room, where they can wreak havoc. I know of at least two emergency nurses and an emergency room attendant who were assaulted last year, one of whom needed surgery afterward. That’s not counting the man who was charged with attempted murder after attacking a nurse with a metal bar.”

The Glengarry County resident added: “After a scary night shift, I started researching hostage-taking at hospitals. As soon as I heard about a woman forced to give birth at gunpoint, I knew I had to write about it. Worthington kept two nurses, the woman, her partner, their older daughter, and their newborn daughter hostage. A third nurse wrestled the shotgun away from him, but he shot her in the back with the handgun.”

Yuan-Innes has invited trauma and security experts to the Stockholm Syndrome book launch on December 6, at the Cornwall Public Library, at 2 p.m.

“Most people are good, but what would you do if you were confronted with an active shooter ?” she asked. “Life can change in an instant. Let’s talk about this in fiction and in real life.”

Yuan-Innes plans some light-hearted moments as well.

“I’m asking people to wear blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish flag, for the Stockholm in Stockholm Syndrome,” she said. “And we’ll be serving a non-alcoholic version of Swedish Glögg.”

For more information, visit www.melissayuaninnes.com.

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