Friday, December 09, 2005

Mad World

I just returned home for a long shift. I didn't feels good yesterday, that horrible achey feeling you get right before you get sick. Never a good sign. Also never a good sign when you get called to the same house twice in one shift. Yesterday AM we get called to a house when a very angry woman lives with her parents. According to the parents, she when psychotic after she hit her toes on the bottom of the stairs. Of course when we got there, she had taken a Xanax and had calmed down. Answered all the right questions all the right ways, so that we could not take her to the hospital. So later on that night we get called to the same house for the same woman. Except this time she had threatned herself and her parents with a box cutter and said she had taken 15 Xanax. She is now extremely violent and screaming like a fucking banshee. Dad had called us and was the only one in the house with any goddamn sense. Because of Course the mom couldn't handle any of this, she kept crying out "What are you people doing to her?!?" So while I was busy with the 'rents my partner and 4 police officers where upstairs restraining this woman. The Dad finally got the mother to calm down, so that I could go and assist in the restraining of this nut. Now I'm fine with the name calling ( YOU DUMB FAT UGLY DIKE! FUCK YOU YOU BITCH!) and I can keep my cool through the kicking and swinging ( have restraints for that), but when they start spitting in my face that's when I lose my patience. Spitting to me is just about the nastiest thing you can do to a paramedic. It's horribly disrepectful and completely unnecessary. I hate spitters. So all the while of fighting this woman we are getting rained upon by spit. My partner got the brunt of it being that he was closer to her face, I was at her legs getting the shit kicked outta me while I tried to tie them down. We get her down the stairs after about 45 minutes of fighting with her. With her screaming to UNTIE ME YOU FUCKING BITCH, YOU CAN;T DO THIS! I'M GONNA HAVE YOUR JOB AFTER MY LAWYERS HEAR ABOUT YOU! I AM AN IMPORTANT PERSON AND I KNOW PEOPLE WHO WILL FUCK YOU UP! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! AND YOU ARE HURTING MY FUCKING ARMS ect ect ect she demeaned us, and our choice of work, that she was a RX rep and that she was more important (so how many lives have you saved?)...So my partner and I silently continue. There is no talking to these people. We get her on the stretcher and get the arm above her head and the other at her waist, get her legs tied down and I load her into the truck. At this time she starts kneeing at the restraint at the top arm, spitting the pieces at me. Gets that arm loose, then gets a leg loose (our soft restraints suck balls) So then I resort to cravats and get everything back tied down, get a mask on her face to keep the biting and spitting at a minimum. My partner asked if there was anything else. Nope just a ride please. The City officer hops in the back with me so If I need help if she manages to unrestrained herself. And off we go. She cusses and screaming for the entire ride, up until the point were she starts complaining about her shoulder hurting because of the restraints. Now Of course being the responable medics that we are we checked all the the points of the tie down. Making sure we got pulses and everything is loose enough so that we don't loose circulation but tight enough to keep her at bay. So when she started in on her shoulder hurting (at first it was MY FUCKING SHOULDER HURTS YOU DUMB BITCH!...Then she tried a different approach of Can you loosen my right arm, please, it's hurting me? ) I told her that I could not loosen anything because of the fact that I cannot risk my own safety in the back of an ambulance. "You did nothing but hit, kick, cuss, bite, spit and call me names while I was trying to help you, so no I cannot loosen it. It's as loose as I can safely keep it I can however help you reposition your body. But under no circumstances can I untie anything." So I helped her reposition. I think she got it through her head at this point that she is no longer in control and that I was. She started crying and apologizing. She said she was scared and angry. She asked if I could stay with her. I told her I could not, however the people at the ER are very nice, they, like us, are just trying tohelp her. According to my mama, who works at the ER we took her to, that lasted about 45mins. She became violent again spitting at my mom, calling her names, swinging at her. My mama is a very kind and wonderful nurse. She cares for her patients in a loving manner, even the fucking crazy bitches. I felt for my mom. I know she can handle them, she knows when to be...Well a mom...When dealing with completely unreasoning patients. But nobody messes with her on my watch.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't like people who attack me or are abusive toward me. I'm there to help them, after all! I think the the abuse like you had to tolerate was the worst. The job is tough enough without having people attack you. BTW. Spitting here is assault and I always make a complaint with the police.

Anonymous said...

Long day on the job today. Water rescue on our little river at 0300 followed immediately by a minor structure fire on an institutional building. Calls non-stop today.

painter in hiding said...

The police were there. took names and all of that. She also attacked the police officers and threated them with the box-cutter. This pt was a borderline, the worst type of psych. They make me want to pull all their fingernails off with a pair of rusty pliers.

Anonymous said...

Don't use the rusty ones. I've found that a new, clean pair of vise grips works so much better.

No

Stacey said...

I absolutly HATE spitters!! A little duct tape and a non rebreather work wonders in that case. Just make sure you take the duct tape off before you get to the hospital (not that I have seen anyone resort to that before)

I love how they go from being abusive to being totaly sweet when they realize that you are not going to untie them.