A physician’s assistant at UPMC Memorial Hospital claims he delivered devastating news to Diogenes Archangel-Ortiz in the days before the man returned to the ICU and opened fire, killing a police officer and wounding five others.
Archangel-Ortiz, 49, was killed by officers during the Saturday morning attack at the West Manchester Township, York County, medical facility.
In a Facebook post Sunday, certified physician’s assistant Lester Mendoza describes his interactions with the shooter over “multiple days.”
“I was there when we delivered the worst news imaginable to him — that his loved one was gone. I saw his devastation firsthand. In that moment, I truly did not see a monster. He was simply broken,” Mendoza wrote.
“Just the day prior, my colleague and I shared our own personal memories of experience of loss with this man,” he recalled. “We developed a human connection as he showed us pictures of his loved one, an engagement gift of a beautiful pink and white necklace and watch, which I thanked him for sharing and he thanked me for sharing mine.”
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Mendoza indicated he never imagined Archangel-Ortiz would do something like Saturday’s attack.
“But grief, exhaustion, isolation, and a lack of mental health and social support services create cracks that people fall through. And when they do, the consequences can be catastrophic,” he wrote. “No one should feel so unheard or unsupported that they resort to violence. No nurse, no doctor, no provider should have to fear for their life at work. And yet, here we are.”
Mendoza called the health care system a broken system that’s failing everyone.
“This isn’t just about one tragic event — it’s about a system that is crumbling under neglect. We are all exhausted. We are all suffering. And if we continuously ignore it, and accept it as the normal, there will be no positive growth or change.”
Mendoza offered support for his colleagues who were in the ICU Saturday morning and for slain West York Police Officer Andrew Duarte, “for your ultimate sacrifice to prevent additional fellow colleagues/friends/work family from also perishing from this tragic, dark event.
“From the bottom of my heart, you will never be forgotten, and neither will the people who put their lives on the line, on a daily basis,” he wrote.
Mendoza didn’t respond to a message seeking further comment Monday, but UPMC’s website identifies a Lester Mendoza as a physician who specializes in pulmonary critical care.
Hospital security consultant Dick Sem said Saturday’s violence at UPMC Memorial reflects an increase in violence at hospitals nationwide.
“Many people are more confrontational, quicker to become angry, quicker to become threatening,” Sem said. “I interview thousands of nurses and hear all the time about how they’re being abused every day.”
In hospital attacks, unlike random mass shootings elsewhere, the shooter is often targeting somebody, sometimes resentful about the care given a relative who died, Sem noted.
“It tends to be someone who’s mad at somebody,” Sem said. “It might be a domestic violence situation or employees, ex-employees. There’s all kinds of variables.”
At WellSpan Health, a nearby hospital where some of the victims were taken, Megan Foltz said she has been worried about violence since she began working as a nurse nearly 20 years ago.
“In the critical care environment, of course there’s going to be heightened emotions. People are losing loved ones. There can be gang violence, domestic violence. Inebriated individuals,” Foltz said.
Besides the fear of being hurt themselves, nurses fear leaving their patients unguarded.
“If you step away from a bedside to run, to hide, to keep safe, you’re leaving your patient vulnerable,” she said.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
