Saturday, June 16, 2007

I Wish That For Just One Time, You Could Stand Inside My Shoes, The You'd Know What A Drag It Is To See You...

Again, long time no jib...

Sorry. If any of my dwindling readership are still trying, I'm sorry.

I've been a little distracted of late. Shroom's fallow period has ended.

I have a new object of my affection. And it is mutual! I'm not a stalker. My current squeeze, my babyluv may feature here more later, but not for now. I don't want to jinx it, and I'm not sure I have the right to publish her the way I do myself; yet...

Anyway; I have a few local interest 'pieces' to blog about, but they will follow. They're mostly me grumping about what's happening at work. What follows, since we were talking of stalkers (sort of) is the tale of Shroom's only stalker - to date.

I know I've alluded to this recently, but don't think I've covered the details.

The whole sordid affair took place years ago, when I was a Plastics junior in a London hospital. At the time, I had rotated on to the Burns Unit, which meant I spent my days there, but shared the on call rota with the other SHOs covering Plastics and Burns. One Wednesday night, I took handover, and did my rounds, as usual. On the ward was a patient who had been waiting for surgery for a few days. I'm not sure why he'd been waiting but it was a bone of some contention to him, and he already had a reputation as a 'troublemaker' among the nursing staff.

The duty Reg and I stopped by to examine him, and see if we could get the op done overnight.

As I recall, the history was that this chap had been in a house that had been firebombed, and in trying to escape the inferno, he had gone out of a window, sustaining glass laceration to the dorsum (back) of one hand. On exam, it was obvious that his injury was substantial. There was significant skin loss, tendon and nerve damage. The op would require complex reconstruction and full thickness grafting - well beyond the capabilities of the Duty Reg and I, and as no consultant had expressed an interest in staying on to do it, we had no choice but to tell him he would have to wait another day.

He was not pleased; as we continued on our rounds, I was summoned urgently back to the ward. The fella was screaming and shouting at the nurses. When I went to find out why, he turned his attention to me. His primary complaint was that too much time had elapsed before the replacement of his dressing. He claimed that his hand had been left undressed for half an hour, and he was furious at the thought of it becoming infected.

When I pointed out that we had only left him five minutes before, he changed tack; the most vitriolic stream of abuse followed, the gist of which was that nurse were "bitches in skirts" who should be at his beck and call. He expected them to fetch and carry for him, and, I kid you not, "peel me grapes".

As this, almost laughable, rant continued, Sister attempted to re4place his dressing - made more difficult by the fact that he was gesticulating wildly. It must have been uncomfortable, because he flinched, mid-diatribe, and i saw his (good) fist curl up, and he went to swing at Sister. I did the only thing I could think of, which was to step in the way, and place my hand over his fist.

I suspect, in my mind, I was Clint Eastwood - as the Man with No Name.

This is part the first... I'm mid edit - apologies

6 comments:

Dr Joey said...

aha, a lady friend! congrats, hope it is going well. stalker thing sounds so scary, and unbelievable that nobody did anything useful to help! great post though, glad you are feeling more cheerful :-)

Nurse Sandra May said...

My god, that's outrageous!

Maybe that is why management are demanding that everyone goes on the conflict resolution course that i've just done.

However, I had a friend pretend to strangle me last night so i get attempt one of the breakaway techniques and failed miserably.

Not so good after all.

Chrysalis said...

Hurray for sister!! She was smart to have him arrested. I feel for all you that put up with that.

For the life of me, I can not understand how some people end up in positions of power, yet they don't have the common sense to see an unbalanced, dangerous individual that needs to be removed. It's pathetic they don't protect their people.

deputydawg said...

I agree with FW.Completely outrageous.The Ris/Hospital management should be ASHAMED of themselves.This moron should have been ejected from the outset ,and the programme for police accompanied patients set in motion.
a sure case for a database detailing problematic/violent attenders in order to protect staff. I bet this "retardus maximus" was never charged.

Alex Stoker said...

Thanks all; especially considering what a slog it must have been to get thru it. Yeah, the whole thing was a disaster; I have never felt so cut adrift, and been increasingly cynical ever since.
Ah well...

Patient Anonymous said...

Apart from the medico-stuff, that's great about the new gal. I really hope things work out. I'm trying to meet new ladies as well but it's so stupid.

I'm sure you know it is too but again, I really hope it comes together for you.