My momma pants!

[RunninOnCoffee]

Ever find yourself wanting to give your patients a serious Momma talking to and just ask them what the heck were they thinking!?! Recently had a grown man pt that drove his mom's car into a tree at a high rate of speed and gave himself several rib fx's, veterbral fx's, a small hemo/pneumo, and a clavical fx. Tox screen came back positive for everything minus pot. Guess who got to call Mom and tell her where he was and what happened :-( That was a fun call to make. However I left out the whole tox screen part to Mom. I figured he would probably just want his injuries told. (he asked me to call mom, I did not just take the liberty on my own. No HIPPA breaking here!) Didn't want that coming back on me and it was not my place to disclose that part. Through one of his lucid moments between dilaudid pushes he looks at me and asks "Did they give me a DUI?" After seeing the shape his mom was in when she got to the hospital I really wanted to smack him upside his head or right in one of the fractured ribs and ask him why he would do that to his momma? Seriously what were you thinking or not thinking. Side note..... he must have hit the drugs right after he dropped off his kids....

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Drug addicts do not think clearly, to say the least.

I would have had him call his mother himself. Or have the doctor or the charge nurse call his mother for him and stated he was in the hospital, and she should come, and let him do the explaining. Or had the police call Mom as she was the owner of the car.

May be just me, but I would not have made that call. Your obligation is to patient care in that moment, and not getting involved in the family drama, regardless of the fact you did not tell Mom he had a positive drug screen--moot point, he drove into a tree.

If he is a grown man, then this brings family dysfunction to a whole different level.

But it is their dysfunction that unfortunetely they have to deal with.

I would have the patient screened for suicide.

I would also be absolutely sure that Social Work understands that there are children involved in this mess.

Just be careful. Obviously this patient was in no condition to "ok" anyone calling his parent. He is grown. So when he sobers up, and faces a multitude of garbage, one needs to be careful that it doesn't fall back on "I never told anyone to call my mother" scenario.

Active drug addicts live in a world of denial. Most will blame anyone or anything else for every bump in their road. For your practice going forward, I would not take sole responsibility for contacting anyone to inform them.

Mother is quite the enabler. It is easy, unfortunetely, to get wrapped up in that role. It is obvious this family needs help, and the most you can do is get as many disciplines involved as possible.