One year after Richard Worthington's siege on Alta View Hospital, the hospital's associate adminstrator says his staff is healing.
But, adds Wes Thompson, "After something like that you're never the same."Sunday marks the first anniversary of the standoff, during which Worthington killed nurse Karla Roth and took eight others hostage.
Armed with weapons and a dynamite bomb, Worthington stormed the hospital looking for the doctor who had performed a tubal ligation on his wife, Karen, two years earlier. He claimed the operation had ruined his marriage and he was seeking revenge.
The siege began shortly before midnight on Sept. 20 and lasted about 18 hours. But the aftereffects continue with Worthington in prison, the hospital undergoing changes and some of those affected by the siege still trying to settle their grievances in court.
"I think our employee staff and our medical staffs in the community have done a marvelous job in working together in what I call a `healing environment,' " Thompson said.
"We've done everything possible in the past year to ensure that the patients that were here and that were affected as hostages are as well as can be. We've had a significant number of counseling sessions for hostages and their families and doctors and their families."
Administrators have increased security but have decided against putting the building and staff through a transformation that would make the facility more like a prison than a hospital. "With good taste we've improved our security," beefing up lighting on the outside and "getting the staff involved in advising us where they feel uncomfortable," Thompson said.
An LDS Relief Society has raised funds for a meditation room at the hospital that will be named for Roth, which should be finished in a few months, he said.
As far as the anniversary of the siege goes, the hospital plans to let it pass quietly.
Nurse Margie Wyler was one of Worthington's hostages. Talking about the experience has been therapeutic for her, and Intermountain Health Care, Alta View's owner, has been very supportive.
But the anniversary has been hard for some. "It's amazing how much it upset people (on the hospital staff) who weren't even there."
Talk after the siege included references to the "Stockholm Syndrome," which occurs when hos-tages began to empathize with their captors, sometimes to the point that they interfere with rescue efforts.
Wyler said she went to Worthington's preliminary hearing but did not realize she was experiencing Stockholm syndrome effects until Worthington was sentenced. "I realized it then. I didn't go but I was pleased with the sentencing.
"I chose not to be angry at Worthington or his wife. I realized that I didn't have to judge either one of them," she said.
Worthington will serve at least 35 years in prison.
Roth was killed in the opening moments of the siege when she and Worthington struggled with the shotgun he was carrying. Attorneys disagree about the specifics of the struggle, and a wrongful death lawsuit Roth's husband brought against Worthington and his wife, who divorced him shortly after the siege and is now Karen Brown, appears headed for trial in 3rd District Court.
The suit lays claim to a $100,000 Allstate homeowners policy that covered both Worthingtons at the time of the siege.
Allstate has covered Brown's legal costs so far but has also filed suit, in Federal District Court, contending that the policy does not cover damages that arise from criminal acts.
Two other lawsuits emerged from the siege. One, brought by Jae Lowder, a patient at the hospital who believed Worthington had shot her baby when he took hostages in the hospital nursery, has been dismissed, according to a court clerk.
The other, brought by patient Nancy Ravera, claims Ravera experienced psychological harm when she heard Worthington threaten to go from room to room shooting every mother and child as she hid in a hospital room's bathroom with her 1-day-old son.
Judge Leslie A. Lewis recently rejected the defense's motion for summary judgment, leaving the suit on the road to a trial.
Worthington's tenure in custody has included three suicide attempts and an attempt to rescind his guilty plea.
Karen Worthington filed for divorce less than one month after the siege and remarried May 22.
A television drama retelling the event titled "Deliver Them From Evil: The Taking of Alta View" aired April 28.
Susan Woolley, a registered nurse who saw Worthington shoot Roth and was one of his hostages throughout the siege, remains on disability and is the only hospital employee involved who has not returned to work, Thompson said.
In a March interview, Woolley said she may never go back to work at the hospital out of fear she would not be able to respond appropriately in another life-threatening situation. "I can't subject a patient - or victimize a patient - with my insecurities."
Woolley participated in the production of the CBS television film, but Wyler did not. Wyler has agreed to work with a version of the siege planned by NBC.
Being involved in the production of the CBS movie was good therapy for some of the people involved, Wyler said. But the drama ended with one of the hostages shouting angrily at police.
Wyler said she hopes the NBC version shows more of the relief that came with the end of the siege as well as showing the human side to the drama: the Worthingtons' lives before he went to the hospital.
*****
(Additional information)
Transferred
Richard Worthington has been transferred to a New Mexico prison to serve his 35-year sentence.
Utah Corrections spokesman Dave Franchina said Worthington was transferred out of compassion because he was anxious about his notoriety in Utah, the Associated Press reported.