the bizarre story of ringo

ringo* came to me on a crazy august night.  he was completely wasted, belligerent, and 'not cooperative with the plan of care' so to speak.  i first met him when i answered the call for help from several of my coworkers who were trying to keep a very rowdy ringo in bed.  he insisted that he could walk to the bathroom, which he did, bouncing off of the IV pole and several walls as he went.  he was a huge man, tall and solid, and my tiny coworkers were no match for him.  as hard as the three of us tried, we couldn't get him to go back to bed.  it took 5 of our finest security guards to get ringo in bed, and 4 point restraints to keep him there.  as my name badge was the only one he had seen, he screamed my name at the top of his lungs repeatedly, until the haldol finally kicked in and he passed out.  turns out ringo had stolen his "roommate's" moped, gotten ridiculously drunk/high, and crashed it into a bunch of parked cars.  he had a couple of brain bleeds, a couple of broken bones, but was pretty much in one piece.

turns out ringo was actually a decent human being sober, although a little overly friendly.  i took over as his nurse the next day and as long as i avoided his grabby hands, we got along fine.

he had nowhere to go, as is pretty common on the trauma unit.  he had been bouncing around sleeping on friends couches and in his car.  unfortunately, brain injured patients can't be discharged to nowhere, and although ringo was desperate to leave, he had to stay almost two weeks.

word came via social work that ringo's "roommate" with the stolen moped was willing to welcome him back with open arms.  odd indeed, but i packed him up and sent him on his way.

not 24 hours later, guess who's back in the ED?

surprise, surprise.

now we are no strangers to discharges/readmits.  it happens all the time...wound infections, bowel obstructions, etc etc.  so i was shocked to read in the ED notes that ringo was being readmitted for a NEW problem.

namely, he got the beat down.

that's right, he was discharged and readmitted the next day after being found down in an alley with a GCS of 3.  he ended up with a new brain bleed on top of his old ones, and several new fractures.  he was IDed in the trauma bay by the surgical chief resident, who recognized him from his previous stay.

he was admitted to the floor, and we picked up right where we left off, like we were in some sort of bizarre hospital time warp.  he claimed not to remember what had happened, and tried to tell his sister that he "fell".

yeeeeeeah.  ok.

my guess?  those open arms of his now moped-less "roommate" turned out to be closed fists.

so that's the bizarre story of ringo, who managed to rack up two traumas in two weeks.  may his brain cells rest in peace.




* names have been changed to protect patient privacy, as have the details of this little narrative.  so hippa nazis can go 'head and step off