Birth & death are everyday occurrences in a large hospital. Homicide, of course, is not.
Large medical centers are multi-billion dollar businesses. But non-profit hospitals serve people, not pocketbook. What matters is high competence, deep compassion & mission amid madness.
The dramatic tragedy of the December 30, 1983 murders of Patricia Matix & Joyce McFadden (see Part II) tested the fabric of a giant hospital & all of its staff. It tore into the hearts of their families, friends & co-workers.
The learnings from nightmares can be profound. They reinforce the finest line I ever read on leadership. "We must always be, simultaneously, tough-minded & tender-hearted" Martin Luther King said long ago.
Tough-mindedness meant staying calm & competent. "Tender-hearted" called for compassion. With each audience a leader-caregiver faces the simultaneity of tough & tender is crucial.
Following the tragedies three goals were crucial: Guiding the hospital, supporting the family & reassuring the public. One goal was not our responsibility. It was up to the police to catch the murders. Yes. There were two. One obvious & one obscured.
Tough & tender were the principles. Facing blinding television lights from news cameras my message to the public emphasized how profoundly heartbroken we were at the loss of two fellow caregivers. I followed that with a message that stretched the truth as I knew it.
"These terrible murders were confined to our research laboratory. Thus, the hospital is running smoothly & care is proceeding normally. The rest of this is a police matter." I introduced Captain Antone Lanata, the officer in charge†.
The public, including patients & caregivers, had now been reassured by facts & by the tone used by police & hospital leadership.
Before the press conference, the same message had been given to all staff including over 700 patients & their visitors, 60 patients in the ER, & hundreds more doctors, nurses & other caregivers.
In fact, in a great tribute to staff, the hospital ran smoothly. It is also true that on that night we were not sure yet that the murders had been limited to the lab. Were the killers still on the loose inside?
Absent awareness of a motive how did we know they were not roaming the hospital seeking other victims? We did not. We made our best judgment. It turned out to be right.
When I entered the office where the McFadden family was sequestered I found a tearful husband & family grateful for my assurance amid their shock. The room for the Matix family held one person, husband Bill Matix. Instead of grief, I was met with outrage.
"How could you let this happen?" he shouted. "My wife came to your hospital for work, not to be murdered. You're President. This is your fault," he continued.
No assurances mattered. It turned out it was money that counted: How much he would make for his wife's death?
The hospital not only returned to normal but from the patient's standpoint professionalism continued.
Sequel
Although the stunning sequel regarding the murderers is beyond the hospital world, you may wonder about the shocking aftermath. [See production still from "FBI Murders,"† above, & further story below.*]
Inside the hospital, this incident exposed leadership weaknesses & strengths. One of our top leaders panicked at the news. "What are we going to do?" he said to me in a stricken voice, hands on his head. Suddenly useless as a leader, I confined him to his office. When I looked around for another top team member I was told he had gone home saying, "This was not his area of responsibility."
On the bright side, legal counsel Frank Pandora was a pillar of strength amid crisis. The same was true of PR director, the late Marilyn Marr. Although a friend of Joyce McFadden she was strong throughout.
Overall, I began to rethink my team & subsequently selected a group of champions including Mark Evans, Jeff Kaplan, Tracy Wimberly, Steve Garlock, Nancy Schlichting & others who will be referenced in future chapters. With this group & others we planted the seeds for a new healing medical center that became one of top ten hospitals in America.
But first, six months after the murder, I got another one of those terrible calls. A prisoner under care in a clinic below my office had gotten the guard's gun & taken hostages!
Coming Next: Part IV - Hostage Crisis & New Initiatives
-Erie Chapman
*Over the next 3 years these killers launched a savage rampage of robberies & homicides. On April 11, 1986, the criminals were gunned down in "the bloodiest shootout in FBI history," subsequently an NBC movie: "In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders." (1988)
Here is the shocker. Although technically listed "unsolved," it is beyond a reasonable doubt that the murderers were none other than Bill Matix himself & his buddy, Michael Platt! Matix, the very man that had accused me of responsibility for his wife's death, had gotten his friend Michael to kill Pat. Matix collected $350,000 for his wife's death.
In a twist reminiscent of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," the two men had made a "criss cross" deal to kill each other's wives. After that, they took the insurance money & launched their robbery & killing spree.
Almost exactly one year after the Riverside murders, Platt's wife was killed by a 12 gauge shotgun in her mouth on Christmas Eve, 1984. Surprisingly, Mississippi police labeled it a suicide. Clearly, Platt & Matix were the killers.
†How were the Columbus police thrown off? Captain Lanata had confided to me that they had found a bloody footprint at the crime scene that fit a size 9 men's shoe** They quickly narrowed their suspect list to men with that shoe size. Matix wore size 11. It was Platt, not on their radar, who wore size 9.
After the shootout in 1986 AP news reported that Captain Lanata said, ″I probably should be charged with incompetence if we didn’t take a hard look at Mr. Platt, to see if he was ever in Ohio, whether there is anything to connect him with our homicide,″ Lanata said.
[**Fortunately, I wear a size 10 shoe because I later learned that because Dr. Bope & I had been among the first on the murder scene we were briefly listed as suspects! ]
††NBC Production Still use via educational exception
