O.C. Nurses Felled Tending Spray Victim

ORANGE —  Nurses at a hospital needed assistance themselves when they were overcome by fumes from an irritant that had been sprayed on a patient Monday, authorities said.

An unidentified woman got into an argument with a man at a Union 76 service station near Lyon and 1st streets in Santa Ana, and the man sprayed her with an irritant such as Mace or pepper spray, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Jim Seleno.

A friend took the woman to St. Joseph Hospital about 3:30 p.m., but the nurses treating her began to feel the burning effects of the chemical themselves, Seleno said.

“The female who went up there either didn’t know what got sprayed on her or didn’t tell them,” he said. Hospital authorities concerned about what was happening called the Anaheim Fire Department hazardous materials team.

When hospital officials determined it was merely a common spray irritant that was bothering the woman and the nurses, they eased the symptoms by flushing their eyes and other affected areas with water, Seleno said.