Correction: A previous version of this story said that the victim was stabbed with the syringe. Police clarified that the suspect injected the syringe into the victim's IV line.
A strange incident occurred at Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs about two weeks ago. A man, later identified as the victim’s roommate, checked into the hospital as a visitor and injected a syringe containing a pink liquid into his IV line, police and hospital officials said.
According to a police report from the July 27 incident, the victim went into cardiac arrest after the incident. A Sandy Springs police spokesman said detectives later “indicated” the liquid was water, and the injection “flushed” his IV line.
Police did not say how the water became pink.
James Douglas Morgan, 51, of Brookhaven, was detained by police at the hospital and charged with reckless conduct. He was released on-scene with a copy of charges and a court date awaits him.
A spokesperson for the hospital, Katherine G. Watson, told Channel 2 Action News that after hospital staff performed resuscitation on the victim and "saved his life," the victim — a 50-year-old man — identified the suspect as his roommate.
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However, online public records show that the two have different addresses. The victim is listed as living in Conyers while Morgan has an address at an apartment in Brookhaven. The police report lists a Brookhaven address for the victim, but it is not the same as the one listed for Morgan in public records.
A Channel 2 reporter went by the listed address on the police report for the victim’s apartment and a man wearing bandages and hospital bracelets answered but he told the reporter he had the wrong person.
The nature of the relationship between the victim and Morgan is not known by police, but police confirmed they are not related by blood. Police nor hospital officials revealed what the victim was originally in the hospital for, but Morgan checked in as a visitor.
According to the police report, the incident happened around 2:20 a.m. in room 621 on the sixth floor of the hospital. A nurse called 911 after witnessing the incident and an off-duty Sandy Springs police officer who was working a city-approved side job as a security guard at the hospital responded to the scene.
Because there was “no physical arrest made” there isn’t a mug shot for the suspect, a Sandy Springs police spokesman said.
Officials with the hospital told Channel 2 on Friday that they have launched an investigation into the incident.
“The safety and security of our patients are most important to us,” Watson said. “We are cooperating fully.”
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