Man. The stuff you see. I was there for about 5 hours and in that time I saw 5 OD's, 3 intoxicated to the point of needing medical assistance, and a couple of cases of DT's come in.

This is in a tiny rural hospital in a small town in Tennessee. The average age looked to be about 25 or so. Nurses running around like crazy cleaning up after the druggies, cleaning up after the DT cases....all of which seemed to be spewing and shitting all over the place non-stop. Working their asses off to take care of self inflicted sickness. It was sad.

My doctor and nurse both actually thanked me for giving them someone to work on who wasn't messed up on drugs or booze and giving them a reason not to have to take part in that insanity. Have to say, that all the people working there were amazing. They put up with situations and people that no one should ever have to deal with, and did it with a smile and graciously. Even taking time to console and comfort the people whose bodily waste they were cleaning off the walls. If you know a nurse or CNA who works in an emergency room, thank them, hell hug them, they deserve it.

As I was waiting to be discharged things had calmed down somewhat and I got to talk to a bunch of the people working there. They told me this was just an average weekday night and not an unusual amount of drug and DT cases. I was sorta shocked. I mean damn, I was a drunk for years, about as bad a drunk as I thought you could get....but never to the point of needing medical assistance. WTF are people doing these days? So young and so messed up.

Picking them up somewhere in the streets and getting spit/vomited on, cursed out and have them try to beat you isn't that much fun either Thank god we don't have much drug problems outside of the usual weekend coma drinkers (well, we got some MJ smokers as well of course, but they rarely end up needing our help)

 

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Pills are popular now add a few pills to a few drinks and you can get into trouble fast(obviously depending on what the pills are).

 

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Of course props also to the med techs and other ambulance personnel who bring in those sad cases. No way in hell I could work in any job that had to deal with that crap. I'd strangle all the patients if I had to do so.

It's a sad comment on our society, and a sad comment on the state of medical care in this country, that all those idiots were in the emergency room on a Thursday night.

As I was checking out I listened to the patient advocate talking to the families of some of the druggies. They didn't have insurance, no money, were working out deals to pay 20 bucks a month or whatever on the bills they incured.

No idea what you get charged for an OD, but my 5 hours cost me a bit over 4k and all I had done was an EKG a CT scan and an injection to stabilize a ruptured vertebra. I wonder if they charge extra to clean your poop off the wall?

Btw you're doing a job I probably couldn't do and I am very thankful for your service. They should pay you more.

 

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I completely agree with the notion that they should pay me more


But truth is, most of the time the job isn't half of what it's made out to be in the media. I often feel like a glorified taxi driver with nifty sound and flashy lights, especially when the patient is located close to the next hospital On the other hand, standing in the middle of nowhere at 2am trying to get some drunk out of the car he just wrapped around a tree and having to wait 20 minutes for a doctor because the closest emergency physician was already busy somewhere else and the next closest has to be called in from a different district definitely has it's moments of thrill

 

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The economy is in shambles. That we are having epic troubles with drugs and alcohol does not surprise me.

 

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I'd make a horrible doctor, nurse, EMT, or cop. Some people are just to stupid to save.

 

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Whats a DT?

could care less abou thte druggies, and it sucks the medical profs have to help them....


But are you ok?

 

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