Patient charged with assaulting Reading Hospital staff members

West Reading police charged a Wyomissing man with aggravated assault, saying he attacked two Reading Hospital employees about 12:05 a.m. Dec. 28 and threatened a third.

The patient was being interviewed by a hospital worker when he asked her how old she was. She didn't answer. He got out of his bed, grabbed a chair and struck her with it, according to court records. The worker yelled for help and tried to defend herself. The patient got three hits in before a security guard grabbed the chair, records say.

During that struggle the patient grabbed the guard's arm and tried to bite the back of his neck, records say. Eventually employees restrained the suspect, who told a third person in the room he knows the man's face, records say. He then threatened the staffer, reportedly telling him, "… You're gonna wake up in your own puddle of blood."

West Reading police arrested the man and turned him over to sheriff's deputies. The suspect, a 44-year-old Wyomissing resident, was charged with three counts each of aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment, and one count of making terroristic threats. He was jailed in lieu of $60,000 bail.