There's been a ton of laughter to go along with a ton of stress. I think it's what keeps us all sane :)
Last night the docs were up to no good. One of the ultrasound techs had been working a lot and was resting in the sleep room. The doc snuck in there and stole her shoe and brought it back to the nursing station. He then proceeded to order a stat ultrasound on a "pretend patient". We were waiting to see what she would do....we waited and waited for her to arrive. The charge nurse then paged her and said hurry its an emergency....she still didn't come. Finally we see her coming down the hall towards the ER. We remained straightfaced until we saw her wearing hospital booties instead of shoes. We all started snickering and then lost it. She was like "i'm sorry, i can't find my shoe"...the charge nurse and doc were screaming "hurry up and get in there, we need this ultrasound" ....i was hiding behind the desk laughing my head off. Finally the doctor burst out into hysterical laughter and the cat was out of the bag. It was a stupid thing but relaxed us all a little bit and connected us as friends.
St patricks day: I assumed i would have an ER filled with drunk people not an ER filled with drunk Kids?
14 year old female was at a party with her friends and someone brought alcohol. She drank and drank and drank. A neighbor went by the house to check on them and found this young girl passed out drunk. She called 911 and they transported her immediately to us. When she arrived she was pretty much unconscious and had a Glasgow coma scale of 3/15. That pretty much means that she was close to falling into a coma state. She was hypothermic with a temp of 95 degrees and was unresponsive. We jumped into action and since I was in the pediatric ER that night, she became my patient. Intially I had to place a foley catheter in her to make sure we could monitor her urine output. We placed 2 IV's in her arms ready to fill her with fluid and blood if need be. I tried to get her to respond to me but all I got was mumbles. I called the parents and they arrived shortly thereafter. They were so shocked to see their young daughter with tubes in her and hooked up to so many machines.
They asked me " will she be okay? will she survive?". I mean, what do i say? I assumed she would survive but you can't say that. I just simply said " this is gonna be a long road but we are gonna do our best to help her have a full recovery". The parents stayed with me the whole time. I heard the daughter repeatedly mumble.." i had to do it mom, i needed your attention". Then I heard the kicker: "i've been cutting myself mom, you never noticed". The mom said " shhhhh , what are you talking about". I got the sense the mom didn't want to hear it and didn't want her daughter to be looked down upon. I inquired more and got the daughter to show me the cut marks on her wrist. It was in that moment that I knew I had to "Baker Act" her.
BAKER ACT: The Baker Act is a law in Florida that allows mentally ill people to be committed to a mental health facility for 72 hours, against the will of the patient.
I told the doctor and we got the ball rolling. I stabilized the patient, called report and transfered her up to the pediatric ICU where they can give her more one on one attention. After the time in the ICU she will be sent to a mental health facility where she can get some treatment and hopefully stop cutting and hurting herself. Who knew a drunken st.paddys day party could turn into something so life changing for this young lady. Note to self: 2 drink max on the next irish holiday ;)
until next time.............
be safe and healthy
love you all
Emma xo
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