Time for a New Roommate

Second time in a week. The first episode, the patient from the assisted living facility came in with sharp anterior chest pain. She said that she was sleeping and woke up with sudden onset of pain. When she opened her eyes, her roommate was standing over her with a crazed look in her eye. Sticking out of her right breast was a ball point pen. Fortunately, the injury was to adipose tissue only and didn’t require any surgical intervention. On her most recent visit, the same patient returned after waking to her roommate’s friend beating her with a cane. She tried to fend off her attacker and fell to the floor where the friend repeatedly pounded her in the stomach with said cane. She had a lip laceration and multiple bruises to her abdomen. I feel so bad for this patient because she’s doing nothing wrong and getting beaten in her sleep. It’s not like a loan shark is trying to collect on a debt or anything like that. Definitely time to find a new roommate. Or a new facility. ———————– This and all posts about patients may be fictional, may be my experiences, may be submitted by readers for publication here, or may be any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate. If you would like to have a patient story published on WhiteCoat’s Call Room, please e-mail me.
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Patient Encounters Source Type: blogs