Some Joke

If you haven’t been threatened by a patient, you haven’t been working in an emergency department very long. It’s a common occurrence that shouldn’t be so common. You can read about “patients gone wild” on this blog almost every week – and those are just the incidences that make the news. Little threats come even more often than that. Most of the time we just laugh the threats off. One patient was a little more convincing than some of the others, though. It wasn’t just some idle threat. This overly intoxicated patient repeatedly yelled at the doc in a loud voice reminiscent of Yosemite Sam that “I’m going to kill you.” He would randomly spout out his intended modus operandi with such phrases as “I’m going to blow your head off” and “I’m going to slit your throat.” The doctor he threatened was a nervous type and the threats got to him. He talked about what a “lunatic” the patient was that day and he made sure the patient had plenty of Ativan and stayed sedated for the remainder of his shift. Eventually, the patient slept off his alcoholic rage and was sent home with his significant other. The following day, Doctor Ativan returned for another day at work. About half way through the day, one of the male nurses started his afternoon shift. Dr. Ativan was in a side room dictating. The nurse witnessed what occurred the day prior and decided that he was going to play a joke on the doctor. So he went to the end of that hall and said in a loud gruf...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Patient Encounters Source Type: blogs