Saturday, April 9, 2005

Flirty Old Guy

As promised, here's the call about the flirty guy.

Respond to 2345 Youpickthe Pl for a 56 YOM feeling suicidal.                                     (In the notes on our KDT) family member called, advised he just wants to die, hasn't eaten in 4-5 days

We get there, and his son and daughter meet us. Over the course of the call we learned some underlying problems.They said he used to be on depression meds, but stopped taking them because he thought they were too expensive. The son added he keeps finding empty alcohol bottles, has no idea where the dad's getting them from, but he's been trying to get rid of them all. Apparently he never drank at all until his father died a couple years ago, and has been going downhill since.

Me and my partner go into the man's room and he's laying on the bed. I go to the far side of the bed with the jump bag and my partner stays on the near side. About the time my partner hit his third or fourth question, I had out what I needed to check the guys vitals. Patient is in purple, my partner is green, and I'll be blue.

I'm not going to no damn hospital.

Ok, that's fine. Will you at least let my partner check your vitals?

He looks over, I guess he didn't see me come in.  That's a pretty young lady..... You know I used to be a good-looking young man. If I was younger I would've gone after you.

I just did the nod and smile thing as I checked his vitals. As soon as I was done, the son brought a photo album out to show off a couple pictures of dad as a young man. Not bad I guess, voted best-looking in his class.

Yeah, I was good looking when I was a young man and I would've been after you.

I bet.

I would've been after you and I would've had your tail.

This part of the conversation went on at least a dozen times. By the end of the call, I felt bad for him and his family, but I really wanted to get out of there.

His kids (both older than me) said he hadn't eaten for a week when they "sat there and fed him like a baby." It had been 4-5 days since and he refused to eat anything.

Seeing that he was in need of help (although he was clear he didn't want to go) we went with our only option, call medical control and ask for orders to take him against his will.

My partner made the call. The guy's vital signs were fine, he was alert and answering all our questions correctly, he keeps stating he wants to lay in bed and die, won't eat, etc...

Doc said sorry, no-go. He seems to know what he's doing, try the Sherriff's Office.

So we did, and their psych on-duty? Was off-duty for the night. We managed to get in touch with them and they said to tell the family to call the crisis center in the morning and if needed, call us back.

We passed all the info along to the son and daughter. We also told them that they need to hide any weapons and to get every last drop of alcohol out of the house. When they asked about him possibly going through withdrawls from the alcohol, we told them to call us if he went into seizures. ANY patient that has just had a seizure will not be properly oriented to make transport decisions for a little while after the seizure stops, as long as we get there during that window- his butt is going to the hospital whether he likes it or not.

We left after being onscene over an hour, although I was a little creeped out by the constant flirting, I still wish he would've let us take him. Being that I'm still new, my partner explained what would've happened if the guy let us take him or if we had gotten a green-light to take him. If he agreed to go, we would've called for an engine for manpower. My partner would ride in the back with me (for safety in case he tried something) and someone off the engine would drive us to the hospital. Had we received the orders from medical control, things would have been a little different. We would call for an engine and PD to respond. The guy would be restrained and strapped to a backboard (restraining is done by tying them to a backboard at each ankle and wrist, then they're secured to the backboard with the usual 5 straps). Then transported the same way as above.

**Side note** I worked the next night at a neighboring station as part of the swap time I mentioned in my previous entries. That evening, I heard another call go out to the same location. I don't know what happened, but if/when I find out, I'll update.

Take care and never flirt back (with your patients)   

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you should put a picture of yourself on your journal page so your readers will know what the man was seeing????  Maybe he wasn't crazy???  :)

--Scott
http://journals.aol.com/sekirley/LifeSaver