Who would have thought I'd receive a death threat....
This is a subject that weighs heavy on my heart and I just have to share this experience. It is a true event that took place this past year...
It was a typical busy noc at work, I had just floated to one of the busiest units in the hospital.(Mind you, I had the first four hours on a different unit, so I finally got to this unit around midnight). Upon completion of report, I busied myself w/ nursing rounds to check the status of my patients and prioritize my duties...I had inherited quite a mess. Two male confused patients, a broken PICC line, an impending dressing change that wasn't taken care of on the previous shift(and the pt was fuming)
And of course, I had two more pt's to add to my load. During initial rounds four of my patients were sleeping. I decided to repair the PICC first, change the dressing, while keeping a watchful eye on the confused male patients.
Upon arriving to their room, bed one was awake, and disoriented;however, there was a horrible stench coming from bed two. I went to check on him and discovered feces everywhere!:uhoh21: I wakened him and told him that I would be his nurse and was going to get him, the bed and yes, even the telephone cleaned up. He was way out in left field.
I went to the BR to retrieve clean up supplies... when I heard loud, audible stridor type noises coming from bed two. Instinctively I ran to his BS to find him cyanotic, gasping for air, and trying to climb OOB. I yelled for help and the crash cart. To make a long story short, we coded the pt, and later he was pronounced by the ER MD. The attending was notified and I placed a call to the family....the son's first response was: "YOU B*@#$!, I'm gonna kill you!--you killed my father! I attempted to calm him down and explain what took place, he would have none of it...he stated he was on his way in to wipe out the whole floor.
The house supervisor, who was present alerted security, while I called the attending to let him know what was going on. In the meantime, I'm shaking like a leaf---all I could think of was that my precious child that I was carrying might not make it to this world.
Guess, what the attending MD's reply was when I called him? "Oh, it's normal---he (the son is just venting)" Well, I replied with " Well, he's made a threat against you too!" He promptly changed his tune and stated he'd call the son.
During all of this I received several other calls from the patient's children who called me every name but the son of GOD. Only one daughter was civilized and understood that her father was very ill, but she also informed me that if her brothers' made a threat, they would indeed carry it out. First of all, she said brothers, so there was more than one. Secondly, I was nearly hysterical by this time. While I was on the phone with this particular family member, the patient's daughter in law was on another line with one of my coworkers exclaiming that the car was gone, her husband and his gun was missing!
We alerted the police, and in the end both sons were barricaded in their home and yes, they were on their way w/ guns. Thus, a thwarted attempt to carry out their plan.
I arrived home very late that am, obviously upset and disheveled.
The previous noc's events played over and over in my mind...security never even escorted me to my car and never even followed up with me. To add further insult to injury, the police officers informed me that there was nothing I could do. Yes, they threatened me, but unless they actually showed up and brandished their weapon--nothing legally could be done to those men.
