A young man was brought into the emergency room with a blood alcohol level of .423, and according to his boyfriend he had been drinking vodka for two days and had not eaten. He didn’t want treatment and was abusive to the medical team. He was a quite nice guy, didn’t look like the type of person who could explode at any moment and launch into an expletive-laden tirade. But the staff soon found out that he was completely out of control, cursing the nurses and when the doctor entered the room for the first time, he spit on him. The police were called.

The ED staff did their best to stabilize the situation and a plan was initiated to get his into detox and then transferred to a local alcoholism treatment facility. His wife was appreciative and tried her best to cooperate with the staff and encourage her husband to comply with the treatment, but it was not to be. His disease had progressed to the point where nothing mattered to his but the alcohol. As he put it when asked if he wanted to quit drinking, “No, I love this stuff. It’s the only thing that’s legal.” His alcoholism had taken over total control of his life. Perhaps there was some remnant of his old self still intact, but he was hard to love.

Medical people are trained to be professionals, and most medical people are compassionate, caring individuals who genuinely want to heal, which is why they got into the medical profession to begin with. The patient had been transferred to one of the other units in the hospital and soon became a case study in the “patient from hell” category.

This particular patient was so disgusting that the nurses were trying hard just to get through a shift. he was verbally abusive, manipulative and divisive. One staffer would go into the room and see the man begging for pain relief. His act was very convincing and people would get taken in, because their compassion overruled their logic. The next would get a nasty, vulgar animal, who pulled out IV lines, threw things of his tray and screamed at the top of his lungs, disturbing every patient on the unit. Nurses shared that they needed support from each other just to deal with the man for a few minutes. One nurse said that the patient would use the “F” word as a verb, noun and adverb in the same sentence.

After a few days, the patient decided to discharge himself to attend a party. Two days later he showed up in the ED again, needing detox with a blood alcohol level practically off the charts.

The whole routine started again.

They stabilized him and moved him to another unit. The nurses were trying to care for him, and that care included taking preventative measures to keep his safe. One nurse talked about how he “catapulted” himself out of bed and was quickly found on the floor, on all fours, trying to get his balance.

He was screaming for pain medication and wanted to the doctor to “put him out” so he could sleep until morning. When the doctor tried to explain to his that he wasn’t going to acquiesce, he went off. It must have been tempting to improperly medicate his just to shut his up, but the doctor followed the protocol and accepted medical practice.

Hospital staffs take falls very seriously. Sometimes extreme measures are implemented to prevent falls, such as arm and leg restraints, but in his case there was a “sitter” in the room with him, watching the whole time and even he could not prevent his action.

Fortunately, the patient was not injured, but the unit’s long record of fall prevention ended. The nurse was understandably upset and blamed herself, but the fact is the patient, in his diseased state, did it to himself. The sitter tried to prevent it, but he wasn’t quick enough to prevent the incident. It happened that quickly.

The staff worked with the patient’s wife again and plans were again made to transfer his to the treatment facility, but he refused. In his case, because of the alcoholism, he was not really capable of making a rational, intelligent decision.

The addiction needs feeding and the addicted mind cannot comprehend being freed. He had gone a long way down the path and had become completely self-absorbed, irrational, manipulative and the disease had progressed to the point where the alcohol had caused serious damage to his liver and other organs. Still, alcohol was all he wanted, regardless of the consequences.

Sadly, he had insurance that would cover his alcoholism treatment, but he would not allow it. So many others go untreated because they have no means of payment, but despite his benefit, he went without treatment because of the poor choices he made continually. The staff will not be surprised to see his again, and once again they will do their best to help his and try to do everything that is in his best interest. But the patient gets the last say and it isn’t likely to happen. The most likely thing to happen will be his literally drinking himself to death.

Ned Wicker is the Addictions and Alcoholism Recovery Chaplain, and he author’s a website for addiction support:

Alcoholism-Support.org
or

Alcoholism Symptoms

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