Misconduct within Armadale Health Service

Misconduct within Armadale Health Service (Recording of Email Sent to the Corruption and Crime Commission)
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To whom it may concern,

In June or July 2023 (I do not recall the exact date), I was taken by police to Armadale Health Service (Emergency Department). I was calm, collected, and had full cognitive awareness – not only regarding the soundness of my own mind, but also my surroundings. I didn’t see any reason for me being held there against my will and made the decision to walk out – exercising my rights of freedom as any Australian citizen would. After pressing the button on the side of an electric door and within mere seconds of walking out, I was surrounded by at least four security guards. I tried to explain to them that it was my prerogative to leave, but they cared nothing for my words and immediately grabbed me with an unreasonably excessive force. My right arm was twisted behind my back and the palm of my hand violently lifted upward so that I was in great pain and feared the breaking of my wrist. I did not fight back nor physically resist them. And even though, more than once, I told them I was experiencing severe pain, and it was unnecessary, the guard who was responsible for the inhumane act, replied and said it was because I was resisting him, which was an obviously ridiculous lie - simply by reason of his comparative size and body-build. In as much quietness as I could muster – to maintain some level of dignity and not give them the pleasure of seeing me beg for mercy – I endured it.

When they had dragged me back to the ED room and laid me on the bed, the four of them firmly held me in place. The guard who had exerted excessive force in the twisting of my wrist a couple of minutes prior was now looking at me in a strangely personal way, almost like he was challenging me to try to do it again and see what would happen. Indeed, just as I had thought this, he threatened me by asking the question: “Are you going to do it again?”

Another guard was mocking me, making derogatory jokes, and laughing at me. It isn’t pleasant nor healthy for my mental state to recall every single detail of what was said and done, but I feel I should give at least one example of what this guard said – because if it happened to me, it most likely happened to others also. He said, “You take it up the ass, don’t you?”

Indeed, I was traumatised – not only from the physical mistreatment and verbal sexual abuse, but also from having my rights and liberties compromised, and that not only by security guards but also by one specific doctor who, after I had been forced back into the ED room, ordered that I be given an injection of some sort. I voiced my objection, asking why and what it was for. Her facial expressions and responses were eery-cold, saying I wasn’t in the right mental state, needed to calm down, and had no choice in the matter since she had made up her mind about it already. So, I was flipped over by all four guards, had my pants pulled down, and injected against my will whilst I bled inside from everything that had happened thus far. The next few days I spent in the locked ward within the mental health unit even though not even once, since my entrance into the premises of the hospital, did I say or do anything to imply I had a mental health problem.

I do not know the names of the security guards nor the doctor who decided that I be given an injection and locked up for days, but I very well remember what they look like. I ask that an investigation be carried out and justice (pertaining to public patients' rights in Western Australian public hospitals) enforced – not only for the sake of my psychological wellbeing, but also for the sake of others who may have suffered similarly under the hands of staff employed by Armadale Health Service (AHS). Sadly, for all intents and purposes (for it’s highly unlikely that I was the first and the last to receive such treatment) the same staff members of AHS who misconducted themselves toward me, have done it time and time again with others also.

Kind regards,
Samir Boulos

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