I had a patient yesterday who went from coherent to full blown alcohol withdrawal within a few hours. He was shaking, hallucinating, yelling and being self-destructive. He got enough medicine to knock out a horse and we had to put him in restraints (ie tie him down) for his own safety. No big deal--this is pretty common for us.
The suck came from another patient who saw this all go down. She spent what felt like forever yelling about how we were violating this guy's rights and calling us monsters for restraining him. "You're worse than the poh-leeece." "You just want him to break his arm and die!" "Occupy <My Hospital>!" It was entirely attention seeking behavior (Why is he getting all the attention? Look at meeeee!), not because she was actually concerned about the guy. Besides, we can't exactly go telling patients all about other patients and their medical problems. Thankfully we had Scary Cop on duty and he scared her into being quiet for a litle while.
The suck came from another patient who saw this all go down. She spent what felt like forever yelling about how we were violating this guy's rights and calling us monsters for restraining him. "You're worse than the poh-leeece." "You just want him to break his arm and die!" "Occupy <My Hospital>!" It was entirely attention seeking behavior (Why is he getting all the attention? Look at meeeee!), not because she was actually concerned about the guy. Besides, we can't exactly go telling patients all about other patients and their medical problems. Thankfully we had Scary Cop on duty and he scared her into being quiet for a litle while.


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