ER stories !

sierranurse · Aug 20, 2004

Duck !

Three-fourty Saturday morning was always a bewitiching hour in this metropolitan emergency room. The bars had closed over an hour previous and those who made the attempt to proceed elsewhere than where they should have after a night of drinking and partying most usually would end up in situations they hadn't imagined in their drunken stupor.

It was a typical blustery, rainy, wet to the bone November late night in this northern California city. The usual waiting period to be admitted into ER was on average four hours. We had our share of accident victims among the usual patient fare that visited an emergency room during the weekend. Also, there was everything from the rest -home geriatric with an elevated temperature that the assisted living staff didn't wish to deal with so they shipped them to ER via ambulance for another chance at a coffee break , the pediatric internal ear infection who was having seizures, and the sixty three year old cardiac arrest victim who arrived via code three mobile response team performing CPR in a valiant attempt to resucitate an obiously dead body. But, you had to try. For, what was the alternative if you did nothing.

Yep, it was a busy wet night in this small building annex with it's tiled floors & walls, stainless steel wall apparatus & surgical tools displaying the same amount of chilling coldness as the weather out side. And, curtained spaces in which to roll the next gurney when there might be an opening.

The structure of those gurney's was such that their heavy duty construction would withstand a lot of long-term abuse from weight and physical trauma. Yet, be safe & comfortable enough for a patients short term stay. Either, to admission as a patient in the main hospital or discharge from the ER back to the street to venture on their way. Hence the term, "Treat & street".

Each Stryker gurney totally outfittted for these concerns weighed approximately 300 pounds. You would notice the weight when transporting a patient on rolling wheels down the hallway. But, you didn't appreciate the total weight with the ease of movement that was engineered within it's compact system. This Saturday night I became keenly aware of every aspect of the gurney's components, comstruction and weight.

Officers of the City police department arrived at approximately 4 a.m. and had with them a 27 year old female in custody who obviously had been out in the elements. For, she was soaking wet in her denim pants and black knit sweater that hung down to her knees from the rain-water weight. Even with that extra rain-water in her clothing she couldn't have been more than ninety pounds. And she was pissed, foul mouthed, wreaking of alcohol, pupils the size of saucers and non-reactive. Her black pupils were so dialated it was hard to determine where her pupil edge ended and the white of her eye began. In fact, there didn't seem to be any white color notable.

The officers, both well over six feet tall and two hundred pounds, were having difficulty restraining her. They brought her to us to evaluate her healthiness for incarceration at the City jail. The intention was to put her on a gurney so the physician might be able to examine her and make that determination. They walked her in from their squad car parked in the ambulance bay to the main ER room with hands handcuffed behind her back and an officer on either side with both of their hands and arms strongly entwined with hers for control. The plan was to place her on the gurney and attach soft leather restraints to her limbs for containment. No such luck !

I was in the middle of performing chest compressions on the male CPR victim when from behind I heard someone scream out, "DUCK!" One of the many disadvantages to working in an emergency room is the high percentage of unseemly individuals that utilize it's service. It was quite usual to be involved in a physical alteration of some sort every night. Too many of those encounters not only involved physical events but guns, knives, and other instuments of harm. That was a purpose behind not only use of security guards but also actual law enforcemnt assignments to many emergency rooms. As ours was a smaller entity we had a rent-a-cop and relied on law enforcemnt when they might be inhouse for other reasons.

So, when the scream went out to, "DUCK!" I immediately stopped pushing on the victims chest and dove to the floor. Just as one of those 300 pound gurneys passed over my head striking the CPR victim tossing him and the gurney he lay upon over sideways to the cold tile flooring.

When placing the ninety pound female on the gurney assigned to her by the officers she had been able to slip her handcuffed hands underneath her buttocks and feet, snaking out of their grip, and dropping off the side of the gurney opposite their position. Wherein, she physically grabbed the cold steel transport device, picked it up & threw it at the officers missing them and me but striking the CPR victim. It took seven personnel to subdue her and use plastic zip ties to bind her hands feet and knees.

Of course, the question was how was a person her size able to perform such a feat? After successfully containing and four-point restraining her to the gurney an evaluation was performed physically and with laboratory work The lab results revealed not only ingestion of alcohol, marijuana, and methamphatmine, but also PCP more commonly known as, "Angel Dust". This property was originally used as elephant tranqualizer and had an effect on abusers that included incredible strength without pain.

After the physician declared the death of the CPR victim and the evaluation of the small female took place she was given an intramuscular injection of relaxant and deemed healthy enough for incarceration and detoxification. The officers picked her up off the gurney by the zip ties, deposited her face down in the back seat of the squad car and drove off into the stormy night with their newest resident to City jail.

I grabbed the next patient chart, called out their name, and went back to work, After all, there was still three hours left to the work shift.

Just another night in ER !

Victoriakem · Aug 20, 2004

You gotta laugh or you start to cry....

I work in an upper middle class ER, where many conversations about medications about to be given have the patient reply, "I was reading on the internet...." So, do you want the medication or not?! A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

What a riot where you work. I haven't ventured into downtown Baltimore to work the ER there, because I see enough where I work in the west county area. If these incidents were recorded for people to see, it just may reduce the amount of etoh & drugs they ingest. I certainly tell my teens at home about anything interesting I see at work. Especially about anything related to sex, drugs & alcohol. Rock & roll is here to stay, though.

As experienced medical personnel in the Emergency
Room we all have favorite stories to relate. If you care to, please share your most favorite with all of us, whether funny or tragic. Be elaborate and detailed. For you may also educate others who haven't had your experience but may encounter the same situation in the future! In fact, I'll start............

JacqueOCS · Aug 20, 2004

It amazes me what you all see in the ER. Have any of you ready "Emergency" it is a small book that has several short stories from docs and :nurse: 's. Some were quite funny and other sad, great read though!

sierranurse · Aug 20, 2004

It amazes me what you all see in the ER. Have any of you ready "Emergency" it is a small book that has several short stories from docs and 's. Some were quite funny and other sad, great read though!

Yep, read it.

Many stories have been experienced by others in different regions. A lot of familiarity in this field. I am even thinking about publishing stories that emergency personnel have experinced,too. I have found that as society & cultures have changed some of the experiences in the emergency field have changed. But, a lot have stayed the same. Just variations on the theme, so to speak.

BucklandRN · Aug 21, 2004

Thats amazing that you have so many cases per night and that you don't know what s coming in next. Thats what fascinates me about the work. It's like you're on this never ending adrenaline rush all night. "Treat and street" that was funny.. I didn't know there were such terms. I'm so excited!

TraumaInTheSlot · Aug 23, 2004

the best stories are the "holy *%#@, this is a guy" stories, where you realize the patient is a pre-op transexual. gyn loves when you send one of them for a pelvic. lmao ahhh NYC