14-03-2025
Palms West attack: Hospital, PBSO to discuss security staffing after patient beats nurse
ROYAL PALM BEACH — HCA Florida Palms West Hospital is taking steps to increase security on its Southern Boulevard campus following the Feb. 18 beating of a nurse by a patient that fractured "essentially every bone' in her face and put her at risk of going blind.
The nurse, 67-year-old Leelamma Lal of Royal Palm Beach, remains at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach nearly a month after the attack.
Palms West on March 10 opened a work station for the Palm Beach County Sheriff Office inside its emergency room, HCA spokesperson Louis Lochte said. The hospital is "in talks" with PBSO to hire an off-duty deputy to provide added security, Lochte later confirmed.
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A sheriff's spokesperson said the agency has not stationed a deputy at the private hospital and that the work station only serve as a "courtesy space" that private businesses can offer law-enforcement officers where they can fill out reports and make calls if they choose to do so.
"Our job is to be patrolling the area in which we're expected to patrol, not to be sitting in a hospital,' the sheriff's office spokesperson said.
The hiring of an off-duty deputy would be on the terms that any business would receive, the sheriff's office said.
Deputies arrested Stephen Scantlebury, the patient who beat Lal, on a charge of attempted second-degree murder on Feb. 18. The sheriff's office placed a hate-crime enhancement on the case after deputies said Scantlebury "made utterances" about the Lal' race after the attack. Lal, a nurse at Palms West for 21 years, is from India.
A spokesperson for the State Attorney's Office said Thursday it intends to charge Scantlebury, 33, of Wellington with attempted first-degree murder because of the hate-crime enhancement.
Lal was caring for Scantlebury, who had come to Palms West complaining of chest pains. The 33-year-old's family said he had been experiencing moments of paranoia, and the staff was evaluating him to see if Palms West needed to send him to a hospital certified to handle mental-health cases under the state's Baker Act.
When Lal entered the room, Scantlebury allegedly jumped on top of her and hit her face repeatedly with his fists. Scantlebury then ran out of the hospital and was detained as he ran along Southern Boulevard.
Circuit Judge Howard Coates on Feb. 27 ordered that Scantlebury kept in custody prior to his trial, citing security concerns.
Palms West attack: CEO decries 'unprovoked, senseless violence' in patient's beating of nurse
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration released a report this week stating a Feb. 24 evaluation at HCA Palms West found "no deficiencies at the time of the survey.' Palms West CEO Jason Kimbrell disclosed the finding in an email to his staff on Feb. 25.
Karen Terry, the attorney representing Lal, questioned the depth of the evaluation and said Palms West's lack of security allowed Scantlebury to attack Lal and then flee from the hospital.
She added the hospital shouldn't even have been treating the patient because it is not a facility that receives patients under the Baker Act, which allows for a 72-hour involuntary hospitalization for those who might harm others or themselves.
Terry filed last week a request to the court to access Scantlebury's medical history, the hospital's security camera footage and a list of its policies regarding Baker Act patients.
"I don't know how to explain that finding, with everything I've seen," said Terry, a partner at the Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley law firm in West Palm Beach.
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@ and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palms West, PBSO to discuss security staffing after beating of nurse
