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.
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.
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