Happy 8 Day

So last week at work I was just minding my own business when out of the blue I heard a loud crash. I got up from my desk,  looked down the hall and I saw our housekeeper picking something up off the ground. When all of a sudden I saw a trash can come flying out of a patient’s room. I remember earlier that security was watching this patient but they had since left the department. So, I walked down to see if I could lend any assistance and looked in the room and saw the patient standing there in front of me. All 6′4″ and 300 lbs. of him staring at me.  The computer, which is usually bolted to the wall, was sprawled across the floor.

Suddenly the patient bent down and picked up a rolling stool and threw it at me. The doctor and I both reached up and grabbed the stool from out of the air. I jumped over the mess in front of me and stood before this giant. I say giant because I am 5′7″ and 152 lbs. He spoke but his words were inaudible. I said to him in a stern voice, ” You need to calm down and have a seat NOW!” He looked down at me and started to raise his right arm so I grabbed it quickly and bent it behind his back bending it high and causing him to buckle slightly in pain. When he did this I pushed against his side and forced him onto the bed. Others standing close by grabbed his other arm and together we pinned him down.

I called out to have security come and help us restrain him in his bed. It took them a few minutes and when they arrived they paused with this dumbfounded look on their faces. Another person and I held him down yelled for security to get their cuffs out and put them on. The patient struggled slightly, but after a moment we had him cuffed and laying on his back. The patient started mumbling nonsense so I looked down at him and asked if the cuffs were to tight or if he was hurting anywhere. He replied “No, but thank you for asking.” I then asked if someone could get the four point restraints which they quickly obliged.

I have had a few other run ins with psyche patients in the past but no one compared to him. It felt pretty good to know I have the strength to take someone so big down. That is until one of the other techs asked “Uh, Where do we put this restraint, he’s missing a leg.” I replied ” He’s missing what?” Wow! No wonder he went down so fast.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under ER stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.