April 30th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor, News, Opinion, True Stories
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So I’m listening to the radio [yesterday] when I hear a story about a woman who was called “fat” by a 24-year-old man at a party. What does she do?
The Omaha World Herald is reporting that she bit off more than she could chew by literally biting off his ear.
Police at a Lincoln, Nebraska hospital responded to a call in the emergency room at 3:25AM on April 28th when the unnamed, one-eared man claimed 21-year-old Anna Godfrey bit off his ear for calling her “fat” at a party. The ear chunk is missing in action. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
April 30th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Humor, Opinion, True Stories
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A patient was brought in around midnight as a “possible stroke.” She was a 60-something woman who had suddenly become unresponsive.
She and her husband had been making love at the time, and he noticed that she was no longer conscious. Unable to revive her, he had called 911. She looked bad — but it was strange. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
April 23rd, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
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The woman in bed six informed me immediately on my arrival and introduction that she was a lesbian. I don’t know why it mattered because she was there for a scald injury on her arm, and I hadn’t inquired about it. In fact, I hadn’t even begun my history before she made her announcement in a somewhat belligerent tone.
So…ooookaaay. I tried not to let this non sequitur throw me too much off my stride, and I went through the brief history necessary for a minor injury such as she had.
As an aside, this self-proclaimed lesbian was quite feminine. She was well-dressed for the hour of the evening and quite pretty in her own sort of way. She even had a choker of pearls on, along with earrings, lipstick, and well-coiffed hair.
I asked a few questions, though, and was surprised at the frankly-aggressive tone of her responses. Nothing too blatant, nothing that I could call her on, but quite definite. And her story seemed to not quite add up. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
April 21st, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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I’m always fascinated by the complaints that the emergency department is so overused and expensive. I admit that it is used a lot, and that care can seem expensive. But I want to make it clear that the reasons are myriad.
Whenever we in the specialty say that we feel that patients abuse our services, someone in academia reminds us that only a small number of those patients do not actually have serious illnesses. Whether or not that’s true, one of the reasons we are overused is due to none other than other physicians.
I’ve been paying attention lately to the way physician referral patterns happen. I suspect it’s the same in other facilities. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
April 14th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
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Intueri (Maria) has it. Go read. Really. I’ll wait. Go read then and come back here, because I have something to say, too. She writes beautifully, and it’s a hard read. I almost stopped before I finished it, and I did flinch more than once. The man she writes about was in my ER today, or at least someone very like him.
He was rolled onto a hallway gurney, given a cursory inspection, and left to sleep it off before being given the “bum’s rush out” when he became more sober and obnoxious. He was viewed by the staff as an irritation, a burden, an annoyance. Smelly, dirty and creepy. Scaring the children as they walked by to their rooms. Nurses were short-tempered and brusque to him, and the doctors avoided him as much as possible. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
