Ok let me set the stage for you.....I'm at work last night and we have a patient come in....Just for fun we'll call him Chucky. Now Chucky is all of 3 ft 6 in tall and about 100 pounds soaking wet. No he's not a pediatric patient, he's a midget. Seems Chucky has a bad habit of falling and always hitting his head. Maybe thats because it's so big and he's always drunk. I don't know, I may be wrong.Now for the nurse side of things...We have Darryl at 6 ft 4 inches and 260 lbs, Tommy 5 ft 6 inches and 135 lbs (after a big meal), and me 6 ft 4 inches and 330 pounds (after purging). And of course we had other nurses there but they are not central to this post.
Now Chucky came in talking and cutting up like he normally does. For some reason after a while of being there he began to get more upset with us. He started to focus his anger at Darryl. I don't know, maybe cause he's black. We were able to talk him down a few times, but it seemed to escalate each time.
So anyway, I'm sitting where I can see Chucky. I see him reach into his pocket and pull out a lock blade knife. The blade is about 4 inches long. So anyway, I tell Darryl "Hey, he's got a knife." To Chucky I said " Now, you need to give us that knife." Chucky pounces off the end of the stretcher and starts to make threatening moves towards Darryl and of course mouthing at him. Darryl does what any self respecting man would do....He grabs up a chair like a lion tamer and wards off Chucky. In the meantime Tommy and I are circling around Chucky.
After a couple of minutes of trying to talk to him, we said to hell with it and we took him down. I grabbed the knife arm and his other arm and Tommy grabbed him too. Darryl drops the chair and grabs ahold of him too. Tommy was able to break his grip on the knife and get it away from him. Now picture this, 725 pounds of nurse on 100 pounds of deranged knife weilding patient. If it wasn't so serious of a situation it might have been comical.
Darryl and I picked him up and returned him to the stretcher where we restrained him 'til the police came. And of course we all had to make statements to security. Darryl pressed charges and had to go downtown.
Just another night at the trauma center. like Rachel says...YOU JUST CANT MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
7 comments:
Are you sure you make enough? At least it is never boring, huh?
Thats one thing about my job...It can go from slow to wild in one call on the radio. And no, no nurse makes enough for what we do.
That is a freakin great story...you paint a perfect picture... I could almost picture the whole thing. Some job!
Gotta love midgets!!! You paint a very vivid picture here. Aren't you glad you went back to CCA?
OMG!!!That's crazy/scary/and funny all at the same time!!!! Now I know what I'm in for!lol
I tell you.....After 8 months of traveling the great west I am glad to be back in Trauma. I was totally burnt out on the job and life. But I now realize that this is what nursing is all about for me. Love the adrenaline rush of it.
And this is what my old man wants to do for a living. Oy vey! Good thing there are folks like yall in the world.
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