woah.

I really thought I was well prepared for this internship. I knew how busy the ED was because I had been given two tours and seen the volume of patients and staff they squeeze into a relatively small space. I had been told that the patient population was diverse. I had seen men handcuffed to their stretchers, so I had a vague idea that there would be prisoners around. But, really, I had no idea.

I have only worked two full days on the floor and here is a quick summary of what I have seen:

1. Approximately 15 men (and 2 women) from the city’s largest jail complex. All were in various stages of shackles. Almost all were there for some sort of assault issue. Almost always bloodstained.

2. One man (also a prisoner, also handcuffed to his bed) being forcebly held down by three police officers, a handfull of nurses, and being sedated against his will while he screamed, “I’m not a fucking animal!”

3. Two stroke patients (both ischemic). One in his 80′s, the other only in his mid 40′s.

4. One “yellow” trauma (less serious than a “red”) with a man who had been beaten with a lead pipe by five men. He was very with-it though. The conversation he had with his nurse:

Luckily, he had no problem with white people, for whatever reason, so I was able to dart in quickly and throw a property bag at him without getting assaulted. He did mumble that he wanted to put his own stuff in the property bag because he didn’t trust us fucking hospital shits. But luckily, by then, I was out of arms reach.

5. About 25 chest pain complaints. Some of whom ended up in the Cardiac room (one of the two trauma rooms) with MI’s (heart attacks).

6 A really, really great 95 year old Cuban guy who had kidney stones. Clare, if you are reading this, he is the very first old person I have totally loved being around! For a second, I was all about geriatrics.

7. A lady who fell in the subway and had quite a bit of her scalp dangling off.

8. A 30-something business guy (in a really nice suit) who had been picked up by EMS off the street, unconscious. He came in (still very unconscious . . . though somehow combative when we tried to do his blood pressure) to detox (though I never found out from what). Nursing staff put him in a big blue diaper (really just a chux pad taped around his waist) and that gave a lot of the other patients a good laugh seeing this young business guy passed out in a diaper. He was there for about 6 hours and last I saw of him, he was getting back in his business clothes – sans diaper . . . unfortunately.

So much more stuff. It’s, to-date, the most insane thing I have ever been a part of. Sometimes, I look around, when there are 10 corrections officers milling around, 12 EMS guys, countless nurses, hospital police, doctors and PA’s, social workers, clerks, and patients laying on stretchers lining the hallway and I wonder if maybe it is all a very elaborate joke. Emergency rooms like this don’t really exist, do they? And amazingly, there are NO nurses around when I need to find one quickly because my patient’s blood pressure goes from 130/80 to 210/105 and starts to freak out (and freak me out).

I come home feeling like I’ve been in a rock tumbler or cement mixer. But I think it’s good. And hopefully this beaten, traumatic assault feeling I have after work will subside after a week or two.