24 hours in a and e

[ColinJ]

Last time in a ward, the police officer got a chair alongside and spent the rest of his shift handcuffed to the person in the bed.

I assumed that the lad was handcuffed to the bed!. He was in the next ward to me so I couldn't see.

There seemed to be a lot of drink and/or drug casualties, either from overdoing things or as a result of fights or accidents.

On my second A & E visit a year later, one drunken lad had been clambering over the roof of a swimming baths and had fallen off a wall trying to get down. He had landed inside a locked yard so clambered back onto the wall using some wheelie bins, and had promptly fallen off the other side and smashed himself up. He was chatting to another drunken lad who had mangled a leg playing football in a car park.

i never did stupid things like that when I was young ...

 

[guitarpete247]

You just have to convince your g/f that you don't cycle at 25mph* with your head down for prolonged periods and not watching where you are going.
*I think his friend said 25?

Not the guy who took his thumb off (nearly). But the one who ended up in A&E with bits of his nose in a bag with ice. I'm sure he was 59.

 

[guitarpete247]

When I was in hospital in Halifax, one injured lad came in handcuffed to a police officer, and the officer spent the night camped out at the entrance to the ward.

I've been to A&E in Burton a few times at night with GF's sons and with granddaughters (plus a couple of times when I tried to cut the end of my finger off cutting onions and twisting ankle coming downstairs). I've seen someone come in in handcuffs .

 

[TVC]

I assumed that the lad was handcuffed to the bed!. He was in the next ward to me so I couldn't see.

There seemed to be a lot of drink and/or drug casualties, either from overdoing things or as a result of fights or accidents.

On my second A & E visit a year later, one drunken lad had been clambering over the roof of a swimming baths and had fallen off a wall trying to get down. He had landed inside a locked yard so clambered back onto the wall using some wheelie bins, and had promptly fallen off the other side and smashed himself up. He was chatting to another drunken lad who had mangled a leg playing football in a car park.

i never did stupid things like that when I was young ...

The thing about this A&E programme, and the others of its type is that they only show the traumas, and not the bulk of the work wbich is taken up with the drunks, addicts, the mentally infirm and the time wasters. But a programne about under-resourced health care workers trying to put sticking plasters on the lives of vunerable and often unlikeable people doesn't make good telly.

 

[snorri]

Not the guy who took his thumb off (nearly). But the one who ended up in A&E with bits of his nose in a bag with ice. I'm sure he was 59.

Yes, aged 59 but supposedly travelling at 25mph.

 

[classic33]

Worst I've ever seen was a result of a fight at Cow Green.
He'd been brought in with a kitchen knife through him, out through his back.
Young nurse treating his minor wounds, whilst they worked out how best to remove the knife. Removal was taken care off when he pulled the knife from himself before going for the nurse and then the person who answered her screams.
Brought to the floor, by police and porters, with no gentle touch.

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 3380712, member: 76"]A few years ago I did some A&E shifts as a Liaison Psychiatry nurse, bloody hell it was a nightmare! I try to avoid the places unless I am in severe need.[/QUOTE]
Isn't that supposed to be the idea?

(Actually, there did seem to be a lot of people with what seemed to be pretty minor injuries - cuts not deep enough for stitches, and/or bruises. The kind of thing I would just clean and cover.)

 

[guitarpete247]

Last time I was in A&E was with GF's eldest. He twisted ankle at work. Tried Burton first. 3hr wait predicted so drove to Derby. He was seen in the time it took me to park the car. All this on a Saturday night. What are they some kind of wussy none scrapping puffta's in Derby .

 

[Piemaster]

(Actually, there did seem to be a lot of people with what seemed to be pretty minor injuries - cuts not deep enough for stitches, and/or bruises. The kind of thing I would just clean and cover.)

Isn't there a thread about duct tape somewhere?

 

[guitarpete247]

Isn't there a thread about duct tape somewhere?

I've found that masking tape is brilliant for minor (not hanging off) wounds. Wrap it tightly enough to stop the blood dripping.

 

[ColinJ]

Isn't there a thread about duct tape somewhere?

That would work!

(It might not be great when it was time to take it off though ... )

 

[TVC]

As an aside to the main topic, but also perhaps an insight to why A&E is clogged.

I decided to be public spirited and become a first aider for my company. I took the three day Red Cross First Aid at Work course. In my first three years of the role I dealt with many minor cuts and stuff in eyes but only two proper incidents, one was a head injury that needed an ambulance, the other a saw cut to a finger which meant a car trip to minors for stitches. However in that time, a guy showed me his decayed teeth and asked if he should see a dentist, another burnt his finger cookeng toast, but left it and drove to work so I could treat it. I was asked repeatedly for medication for headaches and period pains, and have been shown many blisters, pustules and rashes, supposidly so I can diagnose them. I am no longer a work first aider because people thought I was some sort of Doctor. I can't imagine what shite health care professionals go through.

For those who don't know, work first aiders have three rolls: 1. Give you a plaster. 2. Try to stop as much bleeding as possible before the ambulance arrives. 3. Give CPR although it's generally agreed to be mostly useless, until the ambulance arrives and they give CPR although it is useless.

 

[Piemaster]

I have used electrical insulating tape once or twice for minor cuts on fingers. Engineers occupational hazard, but at least the tape is never far away.

 

[MarkF]

I worked in A&E last night, my favourites were:-

• Swallowed DAZ powder - unwell.
• FO (foreign object) up nostril. (Was a condom)
  
• Rectum - Napolean figurine.
• After cocaine + alcohol abuse, feeling unwell. (No s.h.i.t)

 

[ColinJ]

Give CPR although it's generally agreed to be mostly useless, until the ambulance arrives and they give CPR although it is useless.

I think there is a big difference between "mostly useless" and "useless"!

(I would take "might live" over "will probably die" any day.)