Stories from the ER

At the request of @MGstudent, I figured I would tell a few stories of the ER and maybe mention a few mistakes along the way.

First mistake is to know the dosages of your medications, particularly sedation medications.  We had a young lady come into the ER with a dislocated joint.  I had been bragging to the EMS staff about the medication.  Unfortunately, the dose of the medication was 0.3 mg/kg and our doc was not wise to the medicine so he took my recommendation of 0.1 mg/kg.  We didn’t sedate her, just got her good and drunk and she started spouting off pick-up lines… “Wanna play lion tamer? You be the lion and put your head in my mouth.” And  “Is that a keg in your pants, cause I’d love to tap that ass.”  Needless to say, I was the laughing stock of the ER for a while and we ended up calling anesthesia to sedate her.

Second was an error on the docs side.  We had an STEMI come in and he ordered TPA so we could ship to a larger facility with a cardiologist.  I mixed it, drew it up, and was walking to the patient when he ran in telling me not to give it.  I realized at this point that I would have to waste a 3,000-4,000 dollar medication.

Last “mistake” would be a word of advice.  Remember that sometimes the patients you think are faking are sometimes the sickest and will make you feel the shittest about your cynical attitude.  Like the mom that had an ear infection that caused a brain abscess or the man that walked into ER that had a spinal tumor (he didn’t know about) paralyze him while in the ER.

So let’s not end on a sour note…   Thorough my several ERs that I’ve worked.  I’ve fought a cranked up naked black man at 5 in the morning in the middle of the ER.  I took care of a guy that danced around with an artillery shell firework and explode out the back and burnt his leg (missed his package by millimeters) and the guy that left a dildo up his ass for 3 days hoping that it would pass on its own.

I’ve known of nurses blowing doctors while on duty.  I’ve walked in on people fucking in the ER, blowjobs in the ER, handjobs in the ER, fingerings in the ER… Not sure what the hell it is about the ER that makes people wanna get busy in there.  

I’m not sure that I had a point to this blog other than to provide a few experiences from the ER.  You will literally see everything from birth to death, crazy to sane, and skanky to slutty.  

But I loved it, it’s a rush not know what’s going to walk in the ER and that you could go from no patients to 5 traumas at once and back to no patients.  If you think you would like to work in an ER, I say try it.  It’s a trial by fire and you get thrown into the shit pretty much instantly but it really is an experience.  

@That1Murse

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