Misuse of Restraints in the ICU

– Stripped of Dignity

What Happened?

 

On March 2 and March 3, 2023, I arrived at the hospital to find my father restrained to his bed while the nurse in charge was on her lunch break.
This happened on both days.
He was left tied down to the point that he could not even scratch his own face. He could not move -his wrists were tied down to the bed. 
By this time, my father had been hospitalized for approximately five months. His condition, behaviour, and cognitive status were well known to staff.
He was fully cognitive, aware, and compliant. 
There was no justification  that would support the use of restraints—let alone leaving him restrained and unattended, with no doctor's orders, no notification to family, it wasn't even documented in the chart at all. 

                          What This Really Was

 

This was not a medical necessity.
This was not patient care.
This was control for convenience.
A 72-year-old man, fully aware and compliant, was physically restrained so staff could manage their workload more easily and leave him behind while they went on break.
His dignity was removed.
His autonomy was removed.
His basic human rights were ignored.

Restraints are one of the most serious interventions that can be imposed on a patient. Their use must be justified, necessary, and continuously monitored.
None of those standards were met here.
A cognitively intact, compliant patient was restrained and left unattended — not for safety, but for convenience.
That is incompatible with CNO expectations, the hospital's  own policies, and any reasonable standard of patient-centred care.

 

Failure of Oversight

 

When this issue was raised, the response from ICU manager was not concern, investigation, or accountability.
Instead, the ICU manager consistently tried to discredit my father, and give statements that were inaccurate and inconsistent with observed events, effectively attempting to hide what occurred.
Rather than address the inappropriate use of restraints, the priority appeared to be protecting staff and preserving internal operations.
This is a complete failure of oversight.
When leadership responds to serious concerns by distorting facts instead of addressing them, it raises deeper concerns about the integrity of the entire system.

 

                           Why This Matters

Restraints are not neutral.
They remove a person’s freedom. They remove dignity. They remove control over one’s own body.
When used improperly, they become an abuse of power.

In this case:
There was no transparency
There was no justification
There was no supervision
There was no accountability
My father was not treated as a person with rights.
He was treated as a task to manage.

My father was not restrained because he was dangerous.
He was restrained because it was easier for staff.
That is not care.
That is degradation disguised as treatment.