Wednesday, September 22, 2004
emergency room
this is a bit of cut and paste of a letter from my sister, at college. got me to thinking about when i was working as an ambulance officer for the state of new south wales. it was at times a fun job, but also very confronting. i got to see some interesting sort of aftermaths to many wild adventures in a people's lives. my very first job was taking an old lady home from hospital, assisting her into her own bed. after i had done so, before i could untangle her from my neck, she leaned over and kissed me. on my very last day, i saw a man who had been lying in his own bed for three days, eviscerated. he was alive. and now, after being a patient in hospital, getting poisoned for days form an iv, i can't stand to be anywhere near a hospital without feeling very sick. i am almost on the verge of puking, even now as i type these words, thinking about it.
my response:
your adventure to the hospital makes me laugh. i could have told you that you would be waiting a long time to see a doctor for only a broken finger. especially that late at night. mine and jennifers jobs for a while was dealing with people like that on a regular basis. to every individual their case is the most important, but after a while working in that field you begin to look at people like you would sheep or cows. it is when you see someone who is really fucked up, and there are many different ways that can occur, is when you realize that the majority of people in the waiting room, waiting, can wait. triage- it is a french word. and basically translates to sorting people out in the battle field by severity of wound/illness.
the story:
My night did not end very well afterwards. Upon returning my suit mate broke her finger and so we all drove out to the City of Claremont's ER. Apparently the campus hospital has very specific hours of operation and the on call team was occupied -- rescuing some unfortunate student from the belly of a stubborn elevator. The ER was packed with people ranging from drug overdose cases to mothers keeling over to puke. Everyone had a story.... When the approximation time of wait for us was five more hours, after already waiting two hours at midnight, we came home and did some "self repairage." I think she will walk down to the doctor's today. It was a fiasco... i guess she will have to become a left handed painter for this semester.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/basmati14/
this is my sisters online journal. she has some gems in there. quirky at times but fresh.
my response:
your adventure to the hospital makes me laugh. i could have told you that you would be waiting a long time to see a doctor for only a broken finger. especially that late at night. mine and jennifers jobs for a while was dealing with people like that on a regular basis. to every individual their case is the most important, but after a while working in that field you begin to look at people like you would sheep or cows. it is when you see someone who is really fucked up, and there are many different ways that can occur, is when you realize that the majority of people in the waiting room, waiting, can wait. triage- it is a french word. and basically translates to sorting people out in the battle field by severity of wound/illness.
the story:
My night did not end very well afterwards. Upon returning my suit mate broke her finger and so we all drove out to the City of Claremont's ER. Apparently the campus hospital has very specific hours of operation and the on call team was occupied -- rescuing some unfortunate student from the belly of a stubborn elevator. The ER was packed with people ranging from drug overdose cases to mothers keeling over to puke. Everyone had a story.... When the approximation time of wait for us was five more hours, after already waiting two hours at midnight, we came home and did some "self repairage." I think she will walk down to the doctor's today. It was a fiasco... i guess she will have to become a left handed painter for this semester.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/basmati14/
this is my sisters online journal. she has some gems in there. quirky at times but fresh.
