Happy New Year

Ok, what's the first thing you would do when you got out of a 60 day, intensive inpatient alcohol rehab program? If you're thinking "I'd drink a 40", that's the wrong answer. Our second patient of the New Year was just such a gentleman. His wife found him unconsious, laying in the bathroom. After a few seizures, when he finally came around he didn't remember anything, including falling. He swore he had nothing to drink, but he smelled like a brewery.

That reminds me of being a kid, sneaking cigarettes & sharing a beer between 5 of us then chewing a pack of gum so my parents wouldn't be able to smell it. For some reason they always figured it out. Duh.

The first patient of the year, the "glory call", was "injuries from an assault". A womans brothers had beaten her up because she was dating someone they didn't like (at least, that's the story the crew got). She was pretty bad, dropping into seizures & cardiac arrest. Anyway, turns out "she" was a "he" and I guess her brothers didn't like her choice too much. How sad. What did they accomplish? Possibly killing their sibling.

This Saturday night we got a call for an "unconsious female". The person with her called back & said she wasn't breathing. The 911 operater tried to talk the caller into doing CPR, but the caller refused. Everyone responding was going crazy trying to get there fast, 6 minutes w/ no air usually = brain death. So when a medic arrived, it was a shock to find a totally naked woman, face down in a pool of blood. There were holes in the wall where her head & upper torso had been pushed thru, obviously a crime scene. Her family (mom, aunts, etc) were all downstairs & had no clue what had happened. The crew called for police & worked on her but it was too late.

Why do the medics have to tell the family the person is deceased? Why can't the "man with the gun" do it? At least he's got some protection when they start going crazy. Luckily no one was hurt, but it's hard to keep people from moving a body when they want to pay their last respects.
And it's the medics that are standing there trying to explain what happened when we have no idea what happened. We can't accuse anyone, or run screaming from the house because we're sick or terrified. We have to stay with the body until the coroner gets there to make sure no one moves it. The "man with the gun" usually stands outside talking on his radio or smoking. I guess it's not hard too hard put yourself in the families shoes when you have to go thru it also.

I got a phone call Sunday morning telling me this person "thought" my grandmother had passed. How weird is that? What do I do? Call my dad & say "Did your mother die?" Of course I was emotional, but I was full of questions "What happened?" "Why" Where". Turns out it was my fathers' wife's mother that passed. Then I got a call saying one of my distant aunts had passed, this time for sure. What are the odds of that? Again with the questions. I didn't want to start punching the walls or people or cussing or spitting, which seems to be the reaction of most of the families I deal with.

What is it about this year? There have been so many deaths in the past two weeks it scary. I hope this isn't an indicator for the rest of the year. I hope everyone else is having a better start to the New Year.