I’ve had a lot of crazy things happen during a shift at the hospital.
Some of the crazy stories are almost unbelievable. Some mornings ago I had a patient in the ICU that had just been in a massive car accident. The guy had only been off of a vent for a few hours and I caught the guy trying to smoke marijuana in the powder room. The patient had a lit joint and I could see the smoke from the hallway. As soon as I entered the room, it was simple to smell marijuana. I’ve smoked marijuana in the past and I know the scent from a mile away. I told the guy to put out the marijuana joint and he tried to tell me that he was not smoking. I contacted security and they came to the room to enforce the hospital rules. The guy acted like we were being unreasonable when we asked him to put out the joint, but hospital policy dictates there is no marijuana or smoking of any kind in the ICU or somewhere else on the hospital grounds. An hour after the incident, the guy left the building against medical orders. He was hooked up to an IV and pulled it right out of his arm. The crazy patient was willing to die on the street if we weren’t going to let the guy get high in the powder room. I never know what is going to happen from one afternoon until the next. I know that’s what makes my job so much fun.