Exorcism in the ER......NOT

Specialties Emergency

Published

Had a pt come in the other night, female about 40 y/o. She was brought in by her husband and her pastor. She was dragged from the car by them and placed in a wheelchair, and was then intercepted and directed straight to the back. This lady was unresponsive, yet SPO2 was 99 on RA, NSR, good pressure, and a very good corneal reflex. Hmmmmm...we all said. Got a line in her, o2 on her, and then it was off to CT, which was totally normal. Drug screen was negative, all labs were normal....hmmmmmmm, we go again. As she was lying there, her hubby would grab her hand and start talking what sounded like gibberish and you could see her eyes move under her closed lids,....hmmmmmmm we go again. We did a couple of hand drops and never did her hand come close to her face,......hmmmmm we go, this is getting better and better. After a shory while (about 45 min), the pastor returned and both him and the husband started chanting together while running their hands in the air above her body.... by this time we had quit going hmmmmmmmm...just started to :rolleyes: .

This lady remained in an unresponsive state, and then the pastor and husband confided that she may have become possessed :devil: by a demon! I even kept a straight face when he told me that. What was the real kicker was they wanted us to call in a Catholic priest so that he could perform an exorcism on her right there in the ER, before the :devil: became so strong in her it would not be able to be exorcised.

Well, to make a long story short, NO, we did not call a priest. We admitted her to the floor due to altered loc. The floor nurses said they kept up the vigil most of the night, except when they thought there was no one near. Then she would come out of her "trance" and talk to her hubby. Somehow, someone was able to convince a priest to come in the next day, whether he did an exorcism or not is unknown, but she had a miraculous recovery and was able to leave that evening. So the

:devil: lost another one and the good guys once again prevailed in the fight between good and evil......I think.

bob

Specializes in Medical.

I'm very comfortable with respecting the belief systems of different cultures, I just don't think that this qualifies.

After all, the Catholic church itself is very reluctant to claim that people are possessed, or to perform exorcisms. So much so that I doubt you could get a priest to perform an exorcism on a newly-presenting patient with altered LOC FI.

And if there was a pastor there I'm don't get why (given that he clearly favoured the exorcism concept) he didn't call in a favour with the archdiocese and skip a hospital admit altogether. After all, if you don't think there's a medical problem why would you present to a medical centre?

Given that the patient recovered without an exorcism (or, from the sounds of it, any other curative treatment), I think that heaping scorn upon the idea of stanic possession, at least int his case, isn't exactly unwarranted. Positing conversion disorder or attention-seeking behaviour seem pretty accurate as well :)

Specializes in Critical Care.
The floor nurses said they kept up the vigil most of the night, except when they thought there was no one near. Then she would come out of her "trance" and talk to her hubby. bob

I think everyone here has missed this small but significant statment from the OP. Ya'll have been so quick to jump on the "religious freedom bandwagon" that is was overlooked that the patient wasn't really possessed. She was faking it!! She didn't have need of a religious nature, but one of a pysch nature.

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.
:rolleyes: Sounds to me like someone was in a desperate crave for attention and nothing else. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that Good and evil exist....but daing! :chuckle

Has anyone else wondered who is going to pay for this expensive attempt at attention-getting? For some reason I get the feeling that the taxpayers are footing the bill for this one. At least she didn't arrive via ambulance! :rotfl:

Bob, what religion were they?

Specializes in Utilization Management.

I've never heard of an exorcism in an ER before.

I don't even understand why she was brought there if they really believed she was possessed?

Specializes in Medical.
I think everyone here has missed this small but significant statment from the OP. Ya'll have been so quick to jump on the "religious freedom bandwagon" that is was overlooked that the patient wasn't really possessed. She was faking it!! She didn't have need of a religious nature, but one of a pysch nature.

Yeah, that's why I was comfortable with labelling the behviour psychiatric in origin :)

Specializes in ER.

I am all for religious freedom...I am even all for psych patients having their breakdowns...but what bothers me is people that uneccesarily tie up valuable resources in the ED that could possibly have been better utilized helping someone that really needed them...just my thought

She...pysch nature.

Are you sure?

EDIT: And so you don't think I'm being sarcastic, or a complete idiot, or a jerk, I'm asking you are you sure she is the one who requires the psych eval? Or rather, are you sure she is the only one?

:rolleyes: Sounds to me like someone was in a desperate crave for attention and nothing else.

Correctomundo...So the 64,000 dollar question is...Who is craving the attention?

this Is What They Make Rapid Sequence Intubation For!!!!!

Amen!!!!!!!!

Well, I am not to surpised......after all, we live in a society that elected a political party that calls "global warming" bunk science yet believes in creationism and a literal interpretation of the bible......

Specializes in ER.

I read stories like this and am convinced that I need ER to keep me from getting bored. I guess that will never happen in ER. I had another "first" in ER last night. It seems like the longer I am a nurse, the more "Firsts" I see. I had a man get drunk and fall head first into a Giant Saguaro Cactus. After some Dilaudid and Xylocaine jelly to the head, we were able to remove the spines from his scalp. Of course, he said the ETOH had nothing to do with him falling into a 40 foot tall cactus, head first.....yep, nothing at all!:chuckle

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