blogger hit counter
Diary of a Trauma Nurse
Custom Search

About Me

My name is Cory. I am a mom, a wife, a NaNa, and a critical care nurse that lives in Nashville, TN. I have found my calling in ER/Trauma/ICU. Each day I find myself experiencing life changing events and hope that by reading my posts, you will experience and feel some of what I do. If you read nothing else, please take time to read "The Hardest Question Ever Asked". It's my very first posting. And if for some reason you think you see your story here.....you don't. It's not about you or anyone you know. =)



Archives

May 2006
June 2006
August 2006
September 2006
December 2006
January 2007
May 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
August 2008
September 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
May 2010
July 2010
August 2010
October 2010
November 2011
May 2012
August 2014
December 2014
June 2015

Places to Go

MySpace
Nursing Wiki
Am Assoc Critical Care Nurses
Photobucket

Nursing Blogs

A Day In The Life Of An Ambulance Driver
Adventures In Nursing
Adventures Of GuitarGirl RN
All Kids and No Play
Backboards and Bandaids
CrzeGrl
Disappearing John RN
Emergency-Room Nurse
ER RN
Head Nurse
Lucid
MedBlogopathy
Not A Wanna B A Gonna B
NursePractioner'sPlace
Nurse Ratcheds Place
NurseTips
TraumaDive
Weird Nursing Tales

Doctor Blogs

A Happy Hospitalist
Adventures In Medicine
Doctor Anonymous
Fat Doctor
Kevin MD
OB/GYN Kenobi

OTHERS

Micheal
Kathys Lifes Journey



Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Stabbed With a Pen

(This is one of my favorite stories)

“Please take this medicine” begged my coworker to her patient, “it will help you stop getting sick!!!!”. The non English speaking patient with the trach refused to take the phenergan to stop his nausea. He was angry, paranoid, and was violently shaking his head. He told me in Spanish that he thought we were giving him medication to harm him. I explained to him in Spanish that the medication was to help stop his nausea and vomiting. He didn’t buy it. I sat beside him and assured him that we didn’t want to harm him but that we were trying to get him better so that he could get out of our unit. He was so close to moving to a regular room, having his trach removed and going home. He was pacing and acting very nervous. I walked out and told my coworker “sorry, I tried.”
Within 15 minutes there was chaos! There was ear-piercing screaming, we heard tables being turned over, people running, just downright pandemonium on the stepdown side of the trauma unit. Our emergency button had been pushed to call for Security and METRO PD and our trauma surgeons and residents were in the room instantaneously. The patient had become crazed, picked up a pen from the bedside table, grabbed his nurse around the neck and stabbed her in the chest multiple times. Holy Christ!!!!!
He was trying to kill her. It only took a few seconds for him to be taken down by our docs and when the police officers got there the trauma attending said “take him to jail.” The response, and this is the part I LOVE that makes it one of my favorite stories. The response was, “we can’t take a trached patient to jail.” So, you guessed it, the trauma doc reaches over, snips the trach ties, pulls out the trach and says “ok, NOW take him to jail.” I loved it.
Our coworker was out for many months but finally returned and we were so glad she did. You never know what is going through a psychotic mind, but then, you never know what is going through a trauma surgeon’s mind either. =)

CoryTraumaRN posted today at 9:25 PM

Comments:
Hey Cory, current reader here. Was this a recent happening?
 
This happened in 2004.
 
Post a Comment