She "packed up and went".

One nurse who worked for a short time in the ER where I worked should never have been an ER nurse, as a matter of fact she should never have been a nurse at all.

When I was a child I heard my grandmother say that pastors at the church get “the calling” to preach. They are called on by God to spread the word and minister to the people. But there was a new pastor at her church in Winfield that was unsure of himself as he spoke and not really that well acquainted with the Bible (which would be an important attribute if preaching is your calling in life). 

She told me this pastor did not get the calling, “he just packed up and went!”

In the case of this particular nurse, she never got the calling, it was totally not her strong  suit, but she managed to complete the required education and certifications...then she “packed up and went” to the ER. There were NO natural nursing instincts about her at all.

The ER was the worst possible place for a nurse like this, but occasionally they show up. In my opinion an ER nurse is unique, they need to be alert, quick on their feet and natural care givers. A great sense of humor is also a bonus. In other departments or fields of nursing a person can “get by” but the ER and ICU requires the best of the best.

I had become leery of the nurse, I will call her Marcia. There were several questionable things that I had observed about her work that seemed to be gravely lacking in skills and understanding of the process. Others had made comments about her, so I knew I had not misjudged Marcia.  I was anxious and fearful of what havoc she could wreak on our patients.

Then it happened. It was a Friday evening shift and I had just put my things into my locker and headed into the ER to see what was “cookin”. About that time I saw Marcia walking in the ambulance bay doors and I had a sinking feeling that something was going to go wrong on this shift. As I watched her pass and head into the break room, I heard one of my great friends, a nurse named Charlie, as he said, “Oh shit, its Marcia, she’s gonna kill somebody if they don’t get her the hell out of here!” We were all a bit nervous about her.

A couple of hours passed and things went pretty well, hectic but no disasters yet. We had a new patient who was carried in by his parents. He was 18 months old and had symptoms of the croup. Poor little fellow, his big sad blue eyes looked up at me and he appeared to be feeling pretty bad. I could see the concern in the eyes of his parents; they looked so young and afraid.

Immediately I noticed that this new patient was placed in a room that was assigned to Marcia. All of us kept our attention on that baby as we were concerned for his safety. Dr. B was the doctor who saw the little fellow and he ordered blood work, a chest xray and some medicines. This young patient went to xray right away and Marcia was working with another of her patients while he was gone. 

We got busy as large numbers of patients were coming in by ambulance and by private vehicles. 

Soon the little guy got back from the radiology department.  Marcia stepped over and gave the toddler an injection. Then she walked back to her adult patient in the next room and I noticed she suddenly looked startled and confused. I told our charge nurse to see if she could find out what was going on with Marcia. (I never did that with any other nurse but I had zero confidence in Marcia and this child’s health was more important to me than hurting someone’s feelings). 

The charge nurse quickly discovered that Marcia had “accidentally” given this toddler the medicine that had been prescribed for her adult patient in the next room. She ran back to the area where Dr. B. was and advised him of the situation. 

This patient ended up in the Pediatric ICU for 3 days. He came in with the croup and it was not even a significant case of the croup, but Marcia nearly killed the poor fellow.

Marcia was given a stern warning that evening but she was scheduled to meet with the ER Nurse Supervisor on Tuesday when he was to return to work. She was permitted to complete her shift and she was allowed to pull her regular shifts until the meeting. I was shocked.

On Monday as I watched her walk in to work for the evening shift, I felt a knot in my stomach. She was assigned a patient who had been there already for hours. The original nurse gave Marcia a report and a few minutes later, she injected some medicine into this patient’s IV. I had watched this patient for a couple of  hours and she had not complained once; yet as soon as Marcia gave her the injection the patient said, “Oh that stings and burns really bad!” She asked Marcia, “What is that you just put in my IV?” Marcia said, “It is the same thing you have been receiving from the previous nurse for a couple of hours, Mrs. Mason!”  The patient immediately replied, “I’m not Mrs. Mason, my name is Mary Evans!”  

I will never forget that look Marcia had on her face as she turned her head toward me with a look of sheer terror. This made me feel terror as well and I hoped this time would be the time some immediate action would take place to get her out of the ER!

The charge nurse on duty was a great person who always erred on the side of patient safety. She too was watching Marcia as she gave this intravenous injection, she sent Marcia home for the shift. The next morning on Tuesday, Marcia met with our Nurse Supervisor. We were told that she was transferred to 3400 unit to be a floor nurse. This means she would be working under a lot less stress and caring for admitted patients. 

I have nothing against Marcia personally at all. She seemed to be a nice person. I truly hoped that she “packed up and went” to something  more suitable for her skills.

My thoughts are that she could do those flu shots at the table in Walmart or CVS. 

She had a what?

They can’t spell and were very poor in geography....

So many memories fill my head from those wonderful years I worked in two different ERs, I miss those days, almost enough to consider returning...PRN(as needed).

When I was working at Springhill Hospital, we had a dream-team crew. Yes, we did have one or two squirrelly people, but overall, I had awesome co-workers. I loved the crew and will always hold them close to my heart.

There was continually a short turnover in our Registration area, we decided it was because they were paid about the same as a worker who flipped burgers at McDonald’s. But as a result of this problem of quick turnovers in Registration, we had to suffer through charts that came to us poorly written, with misspelled words and full of errors. This story is about one of those charts (cases).

We could not decide if the new people out there registering our patients were really that bad or just did not care. Possibly a little of both.

I was inputting orders and shaking my head about how incomplete and incorrect the info was on the patient's records I was working with at the moment..their chief complaint (reason they came to the ER), was listed as “Stomuck Ake”. That was embarrassing. These records are legal documents.

It was at that moment that I noticed another patient, it was a young woman who appeared to be in great pain, she was being wheeled to the GYN room. She did not look pregnant, but she was doubled over in pain and  was suffering,

My attention was pulled from her to the phone as the cardiologist I had called for Dr. S on another patient, was returning my call and he impatiently agreed to hold while I located him. 

Once the cardiologist and Dr. S were talking, I turned my thoughts back to the patient in the GYN room as I was curious about her and her severe pain. Dr. M, who had gone in to examine her, asked me to call the Burn Unit at USA Hospital for this patient. My mind was spinning at that request. I asked myself, did he say the Burn Unit? Then I wondered what could be wrong.

The GYN patient’s nurse stopped next to me and said, Oh My God, I Would NOT want to be that girl! I asked what happened...it was at that point her nurse began to tell me the story.

This young woman told her nurse and doctor that she felt a weird feeling in her privates this morning and couldn’t figure out what it was. Her roommate was not at home to help her, so she walked over to a full length standing mirror, tilted it so that she could see her vaginal area and was totally shocked at what she saw! She had a huge infestation of pubic lice!

It freaked her out so much that she decided she had to fix this problem ASAP. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, to the kitchen. She flung open the cabinet door just under her sink; this is where they kept the bug spray. There it was, a can of “Industrial Strength Raid”.

She grabbed the can, then ran straight to the bathroom and sprayed her vagina full force from the front to the back! It took only seconds for her to realize just how bad that decision had been.

The stinging and burning was extremely painful. She called her friend who lived nearby to come quickly and take her to the hospital. She said “I thought I was going to die, the pain was so unbearable!”

Our physician was able to clean the injury up and put some soothing burn treatment salve (Silvadene) on it, then prepped her to go to the USA Burn Unit for further treatment of those nasty chemical burns that intensified with each passing minute.

The ambulance arrived to take her to USA Burn Center. Moments later I picked up her chart and it read:  
Chief Complaint:    
Patient has a burnt Virginia.

I was mortified, terrified, down right panicked...

When I started that day, I never dreamed it would end like this, yet it did ...

It all began as I completed my shift in the ER and was heading out the back door of the hospital where I had parked that morning. I had many thoughts running through my mind, some about things that happened on the shift and others about the evening ahead.

I looked up to see a large panel truck parked right up against the end of the sidewalk. One of the two doors was standing open and I could see some trash laying along the inner wall in the van. At that same moment I noticed a small built lady exiting the hospital door right behind me, pushing a gurney and approaching my space on the sidewalk. I stepped out of the way to give her room to pass.

Upon closer inspection I realized there was a deceased person on the gurney who was covered with a burgundy velvet blanket. This deceased person was quite large, at least twice the size of the little lady who was pushing the gurney. It was clear to me that the deceased person was a female because her breasts rose up much higher than other parts. 

Suddenly it looked like the lady pushing was having difficulty, she hit a bump in the sidewalk and began to lose control. 

I threw down my purse and lunch bag and immediately lunged towards her in an effort to avert a real disaster. I was thankfully able to help her regain control and steady the gurney that was  swaying violently moments before. I said, “Hi, I’m Juanita, I'm glad I was here to help you.” She appeared to be pretty shook up and a couple of minutes later she said, “I’m Susan and you saved the day for me” 

Since she was so small, I asked her if she usually picked up bodies by herself.  She said no, this was her first time and someone was supposed to accompany her but he called out at the last minute and she came alone.

I offered to help her get the patient to the van and into the van. She was so relieved as she said, “Oh yes, thank you so much!”

Right ahead of us was a broken place in the pavement and as I attempted to warn her, we arrived at the hole sooner than I thought, the patient began to slide off and I jerked myself around to the side of the gurney to push her over and back in place. It was the eeriest thing as I threw myself in the path of this falling person and felt the weight of a dead person against me.

Then we were at the van, Susan had to leave me alone with the gurney as she opened the remaining door. Then she noticed the gurney was too close to open the door fully, so she gave the gurney a big push and I steadied it as best I could, the deceased person fell against me with a thud and her arm fell out from under the blanket that had thus far kept her out of sight. After I regained control of the gurney, I lifted the arm and placed it back under the blanket. It was very pale in color with brown aging spots sprinkled here and there; the fingernails were beautifully manicured and very long. The way the arm felt was cold and unhuman, yet it was very human indeed.

Susan climbed into the van and pushed some of the garbage and trash out of the way to make room from this patient. 

All I could think of was “Lord, let this be over soon!” The two of us pushed and shoved and grunted as we were finally able to get this patient into the van. Susan quickly thanked me, jumped into the driver’s seat and left.

I stood there in shock and trying to come to grips with what had just happened. Suddenly, I thought, that was a nasty old van full of trash and I have helped this person load a body in it. Why would a mortuary send someone in a vehicle in that condition to pick up a body? 

I went on home and told my husband about it over dinner. The next morning when I got to work, I immediately told one of my co-worker friends about it and how traumatic it had been for me.

About two hours later my boss called me to his office. I walked in to see not only my boss but his boss and the hospital director were present. I thought what have I DONE! I have NEVER been fired before but this was surely some trouble or something very wrong.

Then my boss began to speak, he said, “Juanita there has been a group of people stealing bodies from hospitals, one was taken last week from the Providence and I was wondering if you knew anything about a body of an older lady who was stolen from our hospital yesterday?” 

“He said there are a couple of police detectives waiting to talk to you about it.”

I was as terrified as I have ever been in my life at that moment!

I began to cry and I told them that out of pure ignorance,  I guess I had helped a lady steal this poor woman. Then I told them the whole story and how I really should have known something wasn’t right when I saw that odd vehicle and the trash inside. It was all so strange and red flags had popped up in my head but I had not acted on them. I said I promise you I did not realize that I was aiding a criminal. But I can give you her description and a description of the vehicle if that helps. 

Nothing but silence filled that room for what seemed like hours, yet I am sure it was minutes.

They all sat there with stern looks on their faces as I sat there in a panic!

Finally, they told me that I had done nothing wrong. My co-worker, friend had relayed the story to them that I told her that morning(which she thought was hilarious). She told of me helping to load a body the afternoon before, and all of the craziness that happened. They thought it was so funny, they pulled the security video and watched it several times laughing till they cried. Then they decided to prank me and make up the story of detectives and stolen bodies.

The staff in any ER always loves a prank, it helps them relieve the tension of the things they face minute to minute at work. 

The security video was funny.

They were SHARP thinkers....

Seekers 

We have an underbelly society of people who are often called “seekers” by the ER staff members everywhere. The name seekers comes from their determined efforts to get drugs; they seek drugs in any manner possible. Seekers will do anything to get their hands on drugs just as they will do anything to get money with which to purchase drugs.

When these unfortunate drug addicted souls think about the only thing that drives there very existence -DRUGS, emergency rooms are always on or near the top of their list of places that have them.

Every shift I worked in all of the years that I worked in two local emergency rooms, there was always seekers who came in trying to get some.

Some were more clever than others. One type of “seeker” is the patient who comes in with severe pain (yet its fake pain). They will pretend to have a kidney stone (which is  very painful). Patients who truly have kidney stones are given pain medicines for relief, however, due to the seekers, we now must affirm there is a kidney stone before drugs are administered. With kidney stones there is blood in the urine. We have had seekers bring blood to drop into their urine sample, or they bring something sharp to prick their fingers and drip blood into their urine, etc. in an effort to fool the staff into providing them pain medicines.

Often these folks will scream and put on an academy award performance of unbearable pain and demand  something for it. They will yell, “I need something NOW!”, “I can’t take the pain one more minute, give me something for pain!”  It is very compelling and some are very good at it.

Because it is something we have seen a lot, the staff does not get shook up, or empathetic right away.

One Saturday morning when I was on duty, two guys came into the ER. One was the patient and the other was a concerned friend. Immediately the one who was the patient began to wail and cry about his excruciating pain. He made sure to tell us he had previously had kidney stones and was certain he had kidney stones again, no need to test, just give him something to ease his suffering.

In each patient room of the ER  there are attachments to the wall that are called “Sharps Containers”. They are always bright red and they are plastic containers that hold used needles; all used needles must be discarded safely.  When medicines are administered to patients, the staff disposes the needles (sharps) in these containers.

These two guys had come in specifically to steal a sharps container! I had never heard of that before nor since. But, they actually waited until things settled down and their assigned nurse was busy with other patients. They suddenly ripped that sharps container off the wall and ran out the back door of the ER as quickly as they could, with staff members (including security personnel) chasing right behind them.

They reasoned that there would be small amounts of narcotics in the needles that they could inject into themselves. They had no concern about what the previous patient may have that they might contract after using these used needles with a little residue. All they could think of was the amount of needles and what treasures they would contain.

These two guys made me feel very sad. They were both very thin and looked so tired. One had dark circles around his eyes and I could see that at one time he was a good looking person. His hair was thick and he had high cheekbones that were pushing tightly against the thin layer of skin that covered them. He had many red places on his arms that looked like bug bites, some appeared to be infected. He looked so lean and hungry that my heart could feel his pain. His partner was in similar condition. His hair was long, dirty blonde and stringy looking as he ran it danced in the wind. He had a giggle as he spoke and seemed nervous and maybe embarrassed. Both had teeth that were in poor condition, several were even missing. These young men now looked many years beyond their actual age. They were chasing death and could not get to it fast enough. 

I thought about these guys all day after meeting them that morning. I felt certain that they were once little boys that were not cared for, not loved, not guided in their youth. I envisioned very sad, terrible childhoods that were devoid of love and caring. Why would they be this way otherwise? Then my mind went to a case of one of my neighbors who had a wonderful middle class upbringing and her younger brother turned out exactly like this without explanation.

I have been told and I have read that “Happiness is a choice” and I agree. Yet it is almost impossible to impart that reasoning on a person who has traveled down this path of drugs and destruction. I hope these guys turned their lives around, for their own sakes. I could see the shadow of death as they chased it and it was only a slight reach ahead.