ebola is here

A couple of months ago we started asking people if they have travelled out of the country.  This was around the ebola outbreak in Africa.

Today there is a report that the first ebola case has been confirmed in Dallas.  This is really scary for
those of us who work in emergency rooms. We're literally at the front lines. If someone slips by and we are exposed we take it home to our family and they are exposed.

Shit just got real.  The symptoms of ebola are fever, headache, muscle aches, weakness, vomiting. Symptoms we see every day of the week in the emergency room. Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure, average being 8-10 days.

I wonder how this patient came into the hospital  No doubt it was through the emergency room, exposing lots of ER staff.  The question is did they have any idea this could have been ebola when the person came in or did it take a couple of days for the hospital to figure it out?  Did those staff go home to their families before it was known?

We live under the illusion that somehow this won't get here.  We will stop it at the airport.  There are CDC quarantine stations at airports around the country that deal with those ill from other countries.  They determine whether they can enter the country.  Here's the thing:  They may not yet be manifesting the symptoms at the time they enter the country.

So what's the solution?  I don't know. You can ban people from coming here. The on
ly solution lies in Africa, stopping the spread there. That's being worked on.  In the mean time we're sitting ducks.

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I been robbed

Here are the top ten things stolen from our emergency room:

1) syringes - before drawers were locked

2) linen - sheets, towels and wash cloths

3) phones off the wall

4) fetal doppler

5) lap top

6) bandaids, bandages

7) box lunches

8) gowns

9) oximeter

10) staff purse

11) thermometers

12) TV remotes

13) box lunches

14) scrubs

15) wheelchair


exta added bonus points: Christmas ornaments in the lobby

yup

mc saturday - its the pitts

reality is a bitch

You know when something hits you and you say to yourself: Of course...duh.  I had a thought about work.  From now on, just about everybody is going to be either a train wreck or a nut case.  The days of getting normal people into an inner city ER are over.  Bye bye.  Never coming back.

People have too many other options these days.  They have shiny new suburban ERs.  There are more and more urgent cares.  There are orthopedic urgent cares.  Any kind of normal person is going to them first.

I kept thinking, okay, yes the train wrecks and nuts are increasing, but eventually it will balance out again.  It won't though.  Here's a sampling of a typical shift:

drunk woman who was beat up a few days ago and her whole face is bruised over

ex con guy convicted of attempted murder

16 year old who was stabbed in the back

chronically ill 300 lb woman who is now having another problem

women who is shouting baaabaaaa like a sheep

confused grandpa who lives alone with no family

16 year old heroin overdose

The days of ankle sprains, lacerations, strep throat are over.  Those people went to Bob's urgent care emporium.  Why would they want to sit in the lobby with the hood rats and junkies and STDs and moaning back pains?  It scary and gross out there.  I don't blame them.  Bob's is clean, new, has a fish tank in the lobby.

So welcome to the modern inner city/ghetto ER....where there is a constant stream of train wrecks. nuts, ineffective copers, junkies, drunks, neurotics.  This is our life now. Reality is a bitch.