28 July 2007

It was like a scene from a Benny Hill sketch....

Realistically, if I were a 93 year old gentleman unexpectedly hospitalised into a care of the elderly ward, there are worse things I could do than have 6 nurses trying to chase me back into bed several times in an afternoon.

I suppose I would also probably have the dirtiest laugh imaginable, be bright red in the face and be unable to speak properly from the excitement caused.

You see, as an auxillary nurse this kind of falls within my domain; catching and following escaping patients. I usually don’t mind, except when the 93 year old gentleman in question had had an MI earlier and didn’t realise due to his dementia.

By the end of the 6th attempt at returning him to bed, he was pale and sweaty and the nurses were flushed and panicked.

Thankfully nothing major had happened to him from a cardiac viewpoint, but he did manage to tire himself out enough to sleep during the night. I hope the shift change appreciated our efforts.

2 comments:

Phoenix said...

Ah, that sounds like fun!

I'll never forget a weekend on call when one of our (frail, elderly) patients decided he'd had enough of the ward. He ran about for hours, was put back into bed and promised to behave himself.

As soon as the nurses' backs were turned, he legged it out of the ward and out of the hospital. Two of the girls ran after him but he'd had a big head-start and was eventually picked up by the police who were surprised to see the old boy jogging along the [nearby busy motorway] in his pyjamas and slippers.

Ms-Ellisa said...

Wow...:-) That does sound like aBenny Hill sketch. Lucky you kept your temper... I've seen many nurses/docs screaming to their patientsand it really gets to me, especially if they are old...