They're out there

Working in a hospital gives a person a skewed view of society. You're exposed to a different subset of society that you would have no way to recognize...even if they were your neighbors. There are a lot more unstable people in this world than you would think. I know I've been surprised at how many I've come across. Here's two stories to show you what I mean.

According to a resident, there is a guy in his mid 20's who is a frequent flier in the ER. He will come in complaining of urinary retention for one reason...to get a foley catheter inserted. He wants the foley because he actually gets off it. It's not just the placing either, he even gets pleasure out of it being removed. How do they know this? We'll let's just say the nurses and even the docs examining him have seen him in an "excited state" and on one occasion he's even "finished." This isn't some college kid either, he's married and has a respectable job.

Story two comes courtesy of a nurse who put a gentleman aged 75 years into a room in the cardiac unit. He was scheduled to have catherization in the morning. Not more than five minutes after she had situated him in the room, the monitors in the nurses station started beeping. Looking at the readout screen, the patient's heart rate had shot up to alarming levels. Since each room had a camera pointed at the bed, she glanced upward at the bank of monitors to see if he was in any distress. Lo and behold, grandpa was at the edge of the bed "shaking hands with the sheriff." This is minutes after being admitted, folks. He had to know there was a camera in the room because each one is clearly marked with a large sign and a warning. Maybe that's what he wanted. He even called the nurse back in the room to get a new pair of pants.

I'm not saying that everyone who goes to the hospital is like this, but when some people are in the building they exhibit behavior that to most would find unbelievable. We're not talking people that you could easily spot out either, these are the "normal looking, everyday people" that we pass on the street.

(excuse the euphemisms used in the above post, but I don't want sickos getting here from google doing some kind of weird serach)

Comments

[mark]

In the space of a short year since our last session in Bloggercon I the medical bloggosphere has really picked up in activity.

[jim]

Great summary! This is just such an exciting stuff.