WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — A hearing for a former Northwest Medical Center employee— who is accused of fracturing a patient's rib in 2022— has been delayed until Nov. 6, 2024.
Collyn Harlan, 20, has pleaded not guilty to abusing an endangered person on March 22.
According to an arrest affidavit, a patient was voluntarily admitted to the Northwest Medical Center in Springdale's behavioral health unit for major depressive disorder on March 13, 2022, and was discharged on March 27, 2022. Under Arkansas law, the patient is considered an endangered person in this case.
The affidavit says the patient was asked to take off his clothes for a skin assessment during the intake process and told staff members, Collyn Harlan and Isaiah Morris, that he was not comfortable changing in front of them.
The patient's medical records say he was "assisted to the floor for being non-compliant," but investigators reportedly found surveillance footage showing Harlan and Morris grabbing the patient's arms, raising his feet off the floor, and forcefully throwing him to the floor.
"Video surveillance of the incident shows that [the patient] was forcefully taken to the floor," the affidavit says.
Medical records reportedly show that the patient began complaining about rib pains on his left side after the incident on March 13, the affidavit says. About two days later, the patient received an x-ray that displayed rib fractures on his left side.
Other mental health technicians who interacted with the patient on March 13 said he did not exhibit signs of physical aggression and "surveillance video confirmed [he] did not appear to present any signs of physical aggression while in the intake room," the affidavit says.
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