51-50 Patients

[IronClaud]

Does anyone have any exciting stories to share involving psych patients?

 

[LostViet408]

Other than don't talk to them? Lol...

 

[MusicMedic]

ooh i have quite a few.. psych calls were my fav calls!!
note that i used to work on an IFT Rig (non-emergency)

one time we got called out to a middle school for this 12 y/o male who was apparently throwing desks around the class room, screaming/kicking/yelling and trying to run away..
so me and my partner show up.. we see this small kid in a room, quiet and refusing to talk to us or follow any of our commands.. i would ask him politely to get on the gurney.. but he wouldn't listen.. so Me + my Partner plus two security guards and a police officer had to drag him on the gurney and hold him down while we restrained him kicking and screaming.. almost got kicked in the face a few times.. so we get him in the back of the rig.. partner starts driving.. then all of a sudden the patient slips out of his restrains, (he was a child houdini.) and tries to make a dash for the back doors i quickly pin him down and put my weight on him while my partner pulls over and helps me restrain him again.. he agian does this 4 more times throughout the trip.. then finally the last time i just pinned him down for the rest of the way.. (another note: we had adult restraints, this patient had small wrists..).. so we get to the location and as we are unloading the patient (me and my partner had a lapse in judgment and didnt check his restraints) he jumps off the gurney and makes a run for it down the street.. luckly some sheriffs were near by and saw a patient running with restraints still on his ankles and brought him back to the facility..
we had to write incident reports.. we were lucky the patient didnt get harmed.. after that i made damn sure all my restraints were secure
man that was a crazy day..

 

[exodus]

ooh i have quite a few.. psych calls were my fav calls!!
note that i used to work on an IFT Rig (non-emergency)

one time we got called out to a middle school for this 12 y/o male who was apparently throwing desks around the class room, screaming/kicking/yelling and trying to run away..
so me and my partner show up.. we see this small kid in a room, quiet and refusing to talk to us or follow any of our commands.. i would ask him politely to get on the gurney.. but he wouldn't listen.. so Me + my Partner plus two security guards and a police officer had to drag him on the gurney and hold him down while we restrained him kicking and screaming.. almost got kicked in the face a few times.. so we get him in the back of the rig.. partner starts driving.. then all of a sudden the patient slips out of his restrains, (he was a child houdini.) and tries to make a dash for the back doors i quickly pin him down and put my weight on him while my partner pulls over and helps me restrain him again.. he agian does this 4 more times throughout the trip.. then finally the last time i just pinned him down for the rest of the way.. (another note: we had adult restraints, this patient had small wrists..).. so we get to the location and as we are unloading the patient (me and my partner had a lapse in judgment and didnt check his restraints) he jumps off the gurney and makes a run for it down the street.. luckly some sheriffs were near by and saw a patient running with restraints still on his ankles and brought him back to the facility..
we had to write incident reports.. we were lucky the patient didnt get harmed.. after that i made damn sure all my restraints were secure
man that was a crazy day..

That's when you pull over and make PD take him or assist in restraining him with hard cuffs.

 

[adamjh3]

More than a few, most of my transports (80%) are psych, either 5150 or 5585 (juvenile psych hold). The most interesting thing is going through their history, and learning about them and talking to them about what's going on, often someone just listening to them vent helps a lot, mostly on the adolescent side, though.
A drag down, knockout fight to get them to where they're going isn't fun, it's not exciting, it's the worst thing that can happen for that person. They're humans, they're patients. They're people going through a hard time in life or battling a psychiatric disorder. The best thing that can happen is you never see them in the back of your ambulance again because they get all their ducks in a row and stay mentally healthy. Unfortunately, the system is broken, and they often don't receive or accept the help they need, so we get a lot of repeat customers.

 

[RocketMedic]

We had a patient who constantly serenaded us with Disney princess songs.
Patient was a male in his mid-30s with a weightlifter's body and a lot of body hair (and a bit of an afro/70's thing going on).
Great guy, just a bit off.

 

[jjesusfreak01]

We had a patient who constantly serenaded us with Disney princess songs.
Patient was a male in his mid-30s with a weightlifter's body and a lot of body hair (and a bit of an afro/70's thing going on).
Great guy, just a bit off.

I would sing along...just saying...

 

[Marty Mcfly]

I had a severely disturbed young male pt get out of his restraints, while attempting to re-restrain him he bit a nice half dollar sized chunck out of my arm.

 

[Smash]

Does anyone have any exciting stories to share involving psych patients?

Yeah, one time I had this young guy. He had been a kick-boxer, won a lot of tournaments before the schizophrenia had taken it's toll. He was still very big and very fit. We got called to him to transport to a secure psych facility.

When we got there we found a guy who had been successful, happy and confident, reduced to a shambling wreck, plagued by voices that tormented him day and night.
His father and mother were both there, crying. We loaded him with a Police Officer to accompnay us. Throughout the transport he alternated between staring at the clock on the wall, picking at a scab on his arms and crying softly himself.

Then I came home and wrote up some "exciting stories" about him for the gratuitous entertaintment of alleged health care professionals who really should be able to display some degree of empathy and professionalism on a message board, but apparently can't even manage that.

Really? Exciting stories? Psych patients aren't circus freaks here for our entertainment, they are people with debilitating diseases who need at least a modicum of care, compassion and understanding from those who are supposedly here to look after them.

You want some education or insight into how to deal with different psych issues? Sure, I'll give you what I can. You want titillating stories of ill people acting unsually or violently? Grow up.

 

[usalsfyre]

I had a severely disturbed young male pt get out of his restraints, while attempting to re-restrain him he bit a nice half dollar sized chunck out of my arm.

Compassion, therapeutic communication and lots and lots of midazolam tends to be far better for everyone involved than fighting and physical restraints.

 

[bigbaldguy]

All I know is that no matter how calm you keep them on the ride to the hospital there is some kind of cosmic law that says a security guard will always meet the ambulance and say something like "we can do this the easy way or the hard way" in a tough guy voice. This invariably begins a chain if events that ends with you your partner and 8 or 9 hospital staff ( however none of the staff will be the tough guy security guard) holding the patient down while being spit on bitten and cursed at.

 

[adamjh3]

All I know is that no matter how calm you keep them on the ride to the hospital there is some kind of cosmic law that says a security guard will always meet the ambulance and say something like "we can do this the easy way or the hard way" in a tough guy voice. This invariably begins a chain if events that ends with you your partner and 8 or 9 hospital staff ( however none of the staff will be the tough guy security guard) holding the patient down while being spit on bitten and cursed at.

Or a Doc who apparently has something to prove runs up and starts yelling at your patient (who is about twice the size of the doc) taunting him to get off the gurney and punch him.

Of course as soon as the patient and tries to hop off the gurney the doc disappears.

 

[bigbaldguy]

Or a Doc who apparently has something to prove runs up and starts yelling at your patient (who is about twice the size of the doc) taunting him to get off the gurney and punch him.

Of course as soon as the patient and tries to hop off the gurney the doc disappears.

Yeah it's weird how "that loud obnoxious guy" always disappears.

 

[Melclin]

I don't really think psych jobs are exciting. There is nothing good about them.

They go one of three ways:

-They are upsetting because I see how our system continues to fail the people its supposed to help and I have a pt for whom I can't do anything (there's no analgesia for that kind of pain) and there is nothing I can say, try though I do, that stops the voices, lifts the black cloud of depression, brings back their dead child, changes the fact that they were raped by their neighbour as a child, etc.

-We find idiots that clog up the system with their drunken domestics and then waste everybody's time when the mention once that they'll kill themselves when they find that a situation isn't going their way (I'm suprised being arrested isn't on the list of common causes of chest pain or sudden onset suicidality).

-We're at risk of physical assault.

I've never seen personally and never heard of anyone go to a psych job and come out of it thinking, gee that was a good outcome, I really think we made a difference there.

 

[Smash]

I don't really think psych jobs are exciting. There is nothing good about them.

They go one of three ways:

-They are upsetting because I see how our system continues to fail the people its supposed to help and I have a pt for whom I can't do anything (there's no analgesia for that kind of pain) and there is nothing I can say, try though I do, that stops the voices, lifts the black cloud of depression, brings back their dead child, changes the fact that they were raped by their neighbour as a child, etc.

-We find idiots that clog up the system with their drunken domestics and then waste everybody's time when the mention once that they'll kill themselves when they find that a situation isn't going their way (I'm suprised being arrested isn't on the list of common causes of chest pain or sudden onset suicidality).

-We're at risk of physical assault.

I've never seen personally and never heard of anyone go to a psych job and come out of it thinking, gee that was a good outcome, I really think we made a difference there.

Amen to that. It pisses me off no end to see immature halfwits getting kicks out of the unwell.

 

[Melclin]

Amen to that. It pisses me off no end to see immature halfwits getting kicks out of the unwell.

I saw this bloke the other day 22YOM, frequent flyer, self harm, major depressive disorder, alcoholic, chronic pancreatitis. He was suicidal and telling me that he's seen the psych teams before, and that it doesn't do any good. He was falling between the cracks and worse than previous presentations. As I'm sure you know, its not at all an uncommon story. It won't be long before we turn up for a hanging instead of a 'psych, non-violent' and I'll have to peel his shattered fiancée away from his corpse like I did two nights ago for some other poor :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: who got left behind.

To me he has an illness that is a little under 10% fatal and he's not getting the appropriate treatment. Where the humour is in that I don't know.

 

[DillR]

My first 5150 was a call to the local jail. We found out later the guy had taken PCP. You can infer the rest. My jaw was sore for a week. h34r:

Edit: rereading this it needs some explanation. The jail had him in soft restraints because he was kicking the cell door and had broken a lightbulb. He had calmed enough to where they thought "he could be safely transfered to the gurney and immediately restrained." Needless to say no one on our side was pleased. It was myself, my partner, and two corrections officers. As soon as we came in the cell he started screaming and spitting. Followed by a 10 minute fight to get him restrained. WE WERE TOLD TO TRANSPORT.

 

[jediwill]

Its one thing taking a little grim and dark humor in dealing with people that intentionally mess themselves up...I mean they had a choice and made a stupid one...not that I'm not perfect or anything myself...but someone with mental issues...I cant say the same for that.Someone that has legit issues like that didnt choose that for themselves...having dealt with severe depression before myself I can tell you it can really turn your world upside down...not to mention other family members that are manic depressive.

 

[sirengirl]

Psych patients aren't circus freaks here for our entertainment, they are people with debilitating diseases who need at least a modicum of care, compassion and understanding from those who are supposedly here to look after them.

...not to mention other family members that are manic depressive.

Exciting psych stories, eh? I got a good one for you I didn't even run. Manic depressive 24 y/o female with mild learning disabilities off her medications, actively threatening suicide because her girlfriend broke up with her. She goes to a local church near ex girlfriend's job and hangs herself in a tree. 80 y/o church member finds her and calls 911. 911 does it's thing but can't bring her back. She dies in the truck and the hospital calls her recovering alcoholic mother to give her the news. The mother is screaming down the phone and the 17 y/o sister is left to drive raving parent to the ED where the parent is screaming and crying to see their dead daughter. 17 y/o then left to call her own father to give him the news- it's the first time she's ever seen him cry in her life. Fast forward an hour to entire family wailing in a private room off the ED after having seen 24 y/o's corpse with ligature marks to the neck and an ET tube still down her throat; 17 y/o left to hold shaking mother and try to keep family together. Mother now manic depressive and constantly calls surviving daughter by dead daughter's name.

Yeah I'd say my family has a great psych story.



These are people, with real problems, who need help, who feel like they have nowhere to go and nowhere to turn to. I understand you meant you wanted stories of fights or biting or spitting or crazy people breaking out of ambulances still wearing their restraints, but know that people with mental health issues aren't all like that, not by a long shot.

 

[jediwill]

I mean yeah...crazy stuff that happens IS humorous...but not when its tragic.