TB and "Wet"
First half of the shift was real quiet. Then, we got 7 victims from two crashes in the adjacent town. They were minor injuries, but the ED filled quickly. Shortly thereafter, local PD brings in a suicidal ETOH IV drug user, on a committal paper. He didn’t want to come, so they cuffed him and dragged him in. I go into the room and remove the cuffs, which were in front. The tech comes in to change him. The patient announces he has TB and is now coughing. I’m thrilled with this.
We give him the mask and we mask up. We look for a negative pressure room, but I am told they are all not working. Patient is refusing to wear the mask, although he will cough into it, and keeps coming out of his room. We end up restraining him. He threatens to spit and tries to bite, but we secure him. The clinician checked his file. He was seen last week for an upper respiratory infection. She doesn’t believe he has TB, but of course can’t say for sure one way or the other.
While this is going on, an ambulance patches in, stating they are at our back door with a full code. The code goes to code room 2. A few minutes later a nurse comes out of room 3 shouting she needed a tech. I can see the doc pumping the patient. Room 2 was not saved and room 3 was saved, so they were 50%.
A mope comes running into the waiting room, face all bloody, yelling “he’s trying to kill me,” and literally dove over one of the Registrar’s desk. The Registrars scattered out of the way. Of course the waiting room is full. My partners get him down and secure him on the floor and we walk him back to a psych room, where he continued to be emotionally out of control, but was in restraints. Someone called the police and 9 cruisers showed up. His buddy said the mope sucker punched him so he bit him in the nose. He said they mope is on PCP. Patient later denied PCP, but he tested positive for ETOH, marijuana and cocaine. The suspicion was that he had smoked some “wet.” It’s hard to believe but he has no previous police record or psych history in the system.
