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Weighing on my heart.

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  • Weighing on my heart.

    I'm sorry I always come here with sob stories...but i cant help it sometimes.

    This wasn't a sucky customer but just a situation that upset me. Why you may ask? Well, this girl took a massive amount of medication that will kill her slowly and didn't tell anyone or seek medical help until 4 days later.

    Even when she first walked into triage, she neglected to tell me of her intentional overdose. All she mentioned was abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting since Monday (Its now Thursday evening). She then tells me she was sent to the ER from her doctors office she went to this afternoon. Unfortunately, our computer system blocks out all other parts of the chart while it's in triage mode. When I'm finished triage and close out that section, I see the Call in note from the doctors office which outlined that she had told them she took X medicine and ALOT OF IT on Monday afternoon.

    I immediately turn to her and ask her about it. Mind you, her mother was also in the triage room and could have said something as well.

    I kind of got snippy with her and told her in the future, she needs to lead off with that as its important the doctor and staff get the most important information first. She looked ashamed, but she also giggled which annoyed the crap out of me. It wasn't a funny situation, but i know some people use laughter to assuage their nerves and what not. I do it all the time, but there was nothing about this situation I found funny. I got her a room pretty swiftly and they worked her up in the back.

    Several hours later I get tapped to go with the EMS to do a patient transport to another hospital. It's the same girl from before. Her lab work reveals she will very soon need a major organ transplant or she will die. We don't do transplants in our hospital, which made the transport necessary.

    She had decompensated since being up front in triage with me. She looked like complete crap and couldn't stop throwing up. We load her in the ambulance and for the next hour while we drive, she's vomiting and silently crying. She knows she's dying. I know she's dying.

    She's 22.

  • #2
    Oh god. That's just heartbreaking.

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    • #3
      I wonder what's hurting her so much (emotionally) that she would do that. You never know what's going on inside of someone. Definitely sent up a prayer for her survival and a chance to turn her life around.
      "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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      • #4
        If it's the medication I think it is ... she doesn't have a good prognosis. Not with waiting four days before getting any medical treatment.
        Seshat's self-help guide:
        1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
        2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
        3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
        4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

        "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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        • #5
          If it's acetaminophen, I'm not sure why everyone's tiptoeing around it... IMO it's rather important people know how much damage it can do if taken improperly. If anything, spread the word that it's not a desirable way to commit suicide, what with having to wait a week or two in painful misery.

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          • #6
            I feel for her parents and anyone who cares for her. If it hadn't been for 'Mother's Instinct' I would have lost my daughter at 14 to a massive overdose of ibuprofen. (small slight female basically was a size zero then, took a whole bottle). I woke from a sound sleep and went in to see what was wrong with her. That's when we found she is bipolar. But it is still terrifying now 13 years later to remember how close we came...
            Hugs to you Amina. You do a hard job. Thank you!

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            • #7
              Quoth TheSHAD0W View Post
              If it's acetaminophen, I'm not sure why everyone's tiptoeing around it... IMO it's rather important people know how much damage it can do if taken improperly. If anything, spread the word that it's not a desirable way to commit suicide, what with having to wait a week or two in painful misery.
              They've actually passed a recent law which states that supermarkets are only allowed to sell a certain size pack of panadol for that reason.
              The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

              Now queen of USSR-Land...

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              • #8
                *Lots of massive hugs* That situation sucks all round.

                Quoth Amina516 View Post
                I'm sorry I always come here with sob stories...but i cant help it sometimes.
                Dude, you do a really hard job. Not many people want to do it and even fewer people can do it well. You have to let the bad stuff out somewhere, simply for your own sanity. Really, what better place is there than here? We're not therapists (well, there might be some. I'm not one though), but most people on CS genuinely seem to care, so please don't feel bad.
                Don't tempt pixies, it never ends well.

                Avatar created by the lovely Eisa.

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                • #9
                  Quoth TheSHAD0W View Post
                  If it's acetaminophen, I'm not sure why everyone's tiptoeing around it... IMO it's rather important people know how much damage it can do if taken improperly. If anything, spread the word that it's not a desirable way to commit suicide, what with having to wait a week or two in painful misery.
                  The poster *cannot* say what drug it was. That'd be enough info to identify the patient, which would make the post *illegal* as a violation of medical privacy laws.

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                  • #10
                    Any word on what (or who) caused her to do this in the first place?
                    cindybubbles (👧 ❤️ 🎂 )

                    Enter Cindyland here!

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                    • #11
                      Quoth TheSHAD0W View Post
                      If it's acetaminophen, I'm not sure why everyone's tiptoeing around it... IMO it's rather important people know how much damage it can do if taken improperly. If anything, spread the word that it's not a desirable way to commit suicide, what with having to wait a week or two in painful misery.
                      It could be a HIPAA violation, especially since it is so recent. When I share patient care stories, I'm very careful about details, and usually talking about something in the far past, which makes identification of the patient that much harder.

                      Quoth fireheart View Post
                      They've actually passed a recent law which states that supermarkets are only allowed to sell a certain size pack of panadol for that reason.
                      That's in Australia. Here in the US, you can buy 500 tab bottles at superstores for dirt cheap. Johnson and Johnson is finally adding a special cap with a warning on brand name Tylenol, but that does nothing for all the generics out there.

                      Quoth cindybubbles View Post
                      Any word on what (or who) caused her to do this in the first place?
                      I doubt Amina will ever say. It's really not relevant to the story, and would definitely be a HIPAA violation.
                      They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

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                      • #12
                        Amina hon,

                        As far as I'm concerned, come on in and sob on our shoulders as much as you need to. Yes, keep things anonymous (HIPPA as well as just good patient courtesy); but I'm more than happy to help you, if I possibly can.

                        There's all sorts of things I could try to say, to try to make this particular case easier, but you've already said them to yourself or had other people say them.

                        So I'll just say something I've said to you (and SS) before: you care. And I'm sure it shows. And that makes a difference to these people.

                        Even if they do end up dead, or with life-changing injuries, the fact that someone cared at this critical and dreadful time in their lives will help.

                        If I can help share the pain of caring, and lessen it by sharing ... I want to.

                        Thank you for being you.
                        Seshat's self-help guide:
                        1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                        2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                        3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                        4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                        "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          What Seshat said. (Much better than I could.) I wish there were more ways we could help.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth Sapphire Silk View Post
                            That's in Australia. Here in the US, you can buy 500 tab bottles at superstores for dirt cheap. Johnson and Johnson is finally adding a special cap with a warning on brand name Tylenol, but that does nothing for all the generics out there.
                            WOW, you can buy only 20 tabs of acetaminophen/paracetamol without a prescription here in Germany, before that 30 tabs was the maximum number. And whenever I buy a pack, I'm warned about the dangers - I consider that a good thing! Oh and you can't get it in supermarkets, it's pharmacies only!

                            I feel sorry for the 22 year young woman, I'm not sure I want to know the story behind that fatal overdose. <sigh>

                            Anima, I don't mind your sad stories. Telling them helps you cope and that's reason enough for me.
                            No trees were killed in the posting of this message.

                            However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

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                            • #15
                              I can buy a year's worth of Tylenol on Ebay for $21.00. That poor girl it's so sad.
                              ''Sugar cane and coffee cups, copper, steel, and cattle. An annotated history the forest for the fire. Where we propagate confusion primitive and wild. Welcome to the occupation''

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