Good PR for Nurses!!!!

[Bumashes, MSN, APRN, NP]

This really doesn't have to do with anything in particular. I just wanted to tell everyone about the show I just saw on Discovery Health Channel. The end of the show really gave me a great feeling about becoming a nurse. Here's what happened. It was the "Mystery Diagnosis" show. For those who don't know, this show is about people with health problems that are complete mysteries at the beginning of the show, and it recreates their trials with periodic commentaries from the actual people. Anyway, this episode had a teacher who developed really bad stomach pains with loss of feeling in her legs and hands. She would seizure, lose conciousness, and her heart even stopped a couple of times. Anyway, it turns out that she was being poisoned by her husband with orificenic. They had tested her for orificenic in one of her initial visits to the hospital, but it had come back negative (they only tested her blood.) Apparently, orificenic goes out of your system in about 2 days, so this time, they tested her hair. They found a prolonged exposure to it there. Anyway, the reason they tested her for it a second time was because of the attentiveness of one of her nurses. The nurse entered a room where she then noticed the lady's husband. He was on the phone, and as she promptly turned around to leave him to his privacy, she overheard him talking very "lovey dovey" to someone on the phone. This aroused her suspicions, and she reported it, therefore prompting another orificenic test. The thing that brought a tear to my eye was the sick lady's mother. She had a short little commentary wherein she said, "That nurse saved her life.......that nurse saved her life." Yay! Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that at least we have a little good will directed toward us.

[Bumashes, MSN, APRN, NP]

You know, I'm glad I watch these Discovery Health shows. Maybe one day I'll see someone with the same weird symptoms and be able to say, "Aha, it was Colonel Mustard in the attic with the candlestick!"

[Katnip, RN]

No no no. It was Professor Plum in the library with the rope.

But really, I'm not surprised it was a nurse who ferreted this out. Who knows the patients best?

I am surprised that if the woman was having these symptoms over a period of time that they didn't do a hair sample in the first place, though. Maybe I read too many true crime books and it makes me more suspicious.