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.