Exorcism in the ER......NOT

[2ndCareerRN]

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 .

This lady remained in an unresponsive state, and then the pastor and husband confided that she may have become possessed 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 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

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

bob

[Mary Dover]

As a psych nurse, this is the kind of stuff I love!!!

[Jen911]

How about that one for the lame awards?? Sounds like a good one to me???

[ruby321]

This one could be on TV! Don't we just see everything in the ER?

[l.rae]

maybe the devil made her do it???....possibly er exorcism is not a bad idea...i'm going to try it and see if the residents disapear.....lr:eek:

i've been off this weekend...go back tomarrow. i'll let you know if this works...

[shay]

Oh, dear God...you have GOT to be kidding me.

That kind of crap gives good ol' 'normal' Christianity a bad name....geez. Man, I woulda called a psych consult on her in a skinny minute.

[2ndCareerRN]

I have pretty much given up on psych consults here in WA state. If we have a person who is brought in for suicidal ideation the mental health professionals, (and I use that term very loosely), will sometimes come and see them, or just do a telephone consult. If the person "contracts" not to hurt themselves, they get to walk . When I was in Oklahoma, if a person had ideations or attempted suicide, they were sent to the psych facility for a minimum of 72 hours!! They had no choice in the matter.

bob

[shay]

Note to self....avoid crazy people in WA....lol!!

[eldernurse]

I had a 14 year old boy in the ED chanting, "I am the devil!". We had his mother and the guards following him around, to the bathroom ect. Every time he passed one of us he did his little chant. On one particular pass when the guards weren't too close, I whispered "Nothing a good spanking wouldn't cure!"

He didn't give us one bit more trouble (at least in the ED).

[ERNurse752, RN]

Attention-seeking behavior at its finest...

[LilgirlRN, ADN, RN]

Conversion disorder.

[shay]

This is exactly why I H-A-T-E psych.....