Monday 13 April 2015

K is for KEEP CALM

Finding the title and what to write about for letter "K" wasn't particularly easy. Thought of writing a piece on kidney diseases, as it is one of the deadly diseases ravaging the world at the moment; enough to have a day allocated to it. Realized though that I already wrote that article here. *Phew!*. Today, I'll be telling you a funny story, something that happens in the ER more often that people realize. Here it goes:


Have you ever been in a situation that you felt totally helpless about? You want to scream but you just have to keep calm because there are so many other voices in your head giving you reasons why you can’t let go. Well I’ve been in some of those especially in the hospital. Most of the time it has to do with patient dissatisfaction, either they aren’t happy with the service they’ve received, or they lost a patient they believed shouldn’t have died or even sometimes transferred aggression; it has nothing to do with you or the system but they just need to blame someone.

Imagine this scenario; a young man is rushed into the emergency room on a Friday night by his “friends”, (weekends are the busiest days). He had been in a fight at the club over the usual – a girl. He sustained a deep laceration to the scalp from a bottle broken on his head and his was semi-conscious not just from the acute blood loss, but also because he was drunk. 

As is the protocol at my centre, the patient is placed on the couch for vital signs to be taken by the nurse and a quick assessment to be carried out by the doctor, me in this case. Minutes later, vital signs obtained, assessment completed and the friends are yet to return from the records where they were sent to, to obtain a new case file for the patient. The case file was needed at this time so I could write out my initial management and the medications can be collected from the pharmacy to commence treatment.

Further enquiries into the whereabouts of these friends revealed that they were still indeed at the records with no money to obtain the file. I wonder what happened because the next thing I know, these guys came back, no exploded into the emergency room, asking for the doctor, wanting to know why treatment couldn’t be started without a case file. I noticed that they too were drunk and now aggressive, tending towards been violent. They started talking about guns and shooting and all hell broke loose. 

That wasn’t a day to keep calm; I bolted through the back door as did some of the staff. I’m pretty such someone would have passed through the window connecting the ER and the pharmacy if it were big enough. The security finally got involved and exiled the boys from the hospital premises. Fortunately for the patient, certain other policies were in place in other for him to get adequate treatment and pay later.

If you are wondering why we have such a policy as “pay before service” in a hospital that is meant to save lives, then keep an eye out for “P”. Keep in mind that these guys had money aplenty to get drunk but not for their health.

14 comments:

  1. "K" is for Keren and keep calm. Boys will be boys.

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    1. Now, why didn't I think of that (K is for Keren). Boys will always be boys oh! Wahala dey. Lol

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  2. I am sure dealing with irate and over anxious relatives of patients must be testing your skills almost as treating them! And this is not 'taught' in any book or med school. One just has to observe, learn and develop this skill. Keep Calm is a good advice for everyone actually! Stopping by via the AtoZ!

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    1. Thanks Kate for stopping by. Indeed these things we must learn on the job.

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  3. LOL. I would've paid good money just for an opportunity to watch you bolt out of the back door like that. Thank God the situation was eventually contained. :)

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    1. No be small something oh! Omo, you need to see 100m race. If I had been timed, maybe I would have been close to Usain Bolt's record. Lol

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  4. Yikes! That sounds like a scary day. I wouldn't have kept calm either.

    I hate it when people can drink so much as bars and clubs, or buy so much to drink at home, but then claim they don't have money to pay for bills and food, etc.

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    1. It was a scary day. It is also very annoying when priorities aren't set right.

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  5. contained and under control... for me I am very claustrophobic and sometimes find myself in normal situations where I panic. I try to keep calm, sometimes I will have to walk outside to a bigger surroundings to get back on track...

    Jeremy [Retro]
    AtoZ Challenge Co-Host [2015]

    There's no earthly way of knowing.
    Which direction we are going!

    HOLLYWOOD NUTS!
    Come Visit: You know you want to know if me or Hollywood... is Nuts?

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    1. This mustn't be easy for you. Good to know you are able to handle such situations when they arise

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  6. Helpless I can do. I can calm myself easily if there isn't a darned thing I can do about it. But keeping calm when I am supposed to do something urgent is another matter... Or when I have TOO much to do (then I sort of act like there is nothing I can do--I get overwhelmed.)

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    1. Keeping calm is a great tactics to avoid problems in many situations.

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  7. Wow, that must have been scary! There are definitely times when "freak out and run" is the appropriate response...

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
    MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

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