When Patients Attack
Nice post by EM Physician, and an older article I came across by Dr. Edwin Leap.
Uniformed and armed security is a wonderful thing in an ED.
Uniformed and armed security is a wonderful thing in an ED.
Labels: ER
posted by scalpel at 3:05 PM
4 Comments:
Can docs in the ED carry handguns if they have a concealed permit? Heck, just a carry permit, can you walk around with one in plain view in a holster? I wonder what that would do to the drug seeker / doctor relationship?
I wish.
I'm learning more and more how much doctors and teachers have in common.
One night when I was working on the neuro floor, we had two nurses (me+1 other) and an aide. There was a diabetic guy who'd had an anoxic brain injury from a severe hypoglycemic reaction, and he'd be perfectly nice one minute, and then he'd just swing with no warning or run away with no warning, TPN, lipids, and all.
On one particular night, he was really hypoglycemic and he gave the aide a bloody lip, the other nurse a bloody nose when he tried to intervene, and the charge an arm injury. I was the only remaining staff member for the entire floor if you consider that the rest were all injured. Did I mention he was the size of a football player? Probably 6'5" and nearly 3 bills? Security couldn't even take this guy down.
The charge nurse worked with a severely sore arm so I wouldn't be alone, an arm, she later learned, would require physical therapy to heal. I cant' remember what exactly was wrong, but it wasn't good.
At some point the patient sat down in his room and I, the last nurse, who had previously declared there was no f'n' way in Hell I was going anywhere near that patient since I had to preserve myself to help everyone else, went in with the recliner chair as a SWAT shield and fed him some juice with just my arm over the recliner chair. That night, security was NOT helpful and I complained up a storm. They just stood around while I went in there with a recliner as an f'n' SWAT shield.
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