| General Non-Fiction posted October 25, 2017 |
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Non-fiction about having saved lives
Saving Lives
by dovemarie
On January 22, 1982, I found myself with a roommate who told me she had taken all her pills in an overdose. It flashed through me not to help her, as she and I had not gotten along for the previous two or three months. But my sense of humanity won out. I called the mental institution staff, who told me to try and get her into a cab! She was a big woman, and of course she wouldn't go. So I called staff at a halfway house that we were connected with, and that person and the Emergency Team of the institution called an ambulance to get her at our apartment. She was taken to ICU, and I was told that I had helped to save her life.
In February or March 1991, I was an inpatient at the institution, and I went into the bathroom a minute after a female patient who was on constant observation had gone in. A male staff, who was really not qualified to be watching her as he was only a kitchen worker, kept saying to himself in a low tone, "Come on, miss," (meaning for that patient to hurry up in the bathroom.) When I went in, I was on the other side of the stall, I didn't see most of her body, but I could see the top of the stall, and part of her head above it, so I rushed out into the hallway and said to the young man who had been watching her: "She's hanging herself!" He dashed in and got her out, and we alerted other staff as well.
On both of these occasions, I was thankful to be in the right place at the right time.
On January 22, 1982, I found myself with a roommate who told me she had taken all her pills in an overdose. It flashed through me not to help her, as she and I had not gotten along for the previous two or three months. But my sense of humanity won out. I called the mental institution staff, who told me to try and get her into a cab! She was a big woman, and of course she wouldn't go. So I called staff at a halfway house that we were connected with, and that person and the Emergency Team of the institution called an ambulance to get her at our apartment. She was taken to ICU, and I was told that I had helped to save her life.
In February or March 1991, I was an inpatient at the institution, and I went into the bathroom a minute after a female patient who was on constant observation had gone in. A male staff, who was really not qualified to be watching her as he was only a kitchen worker, kept saying to himself in a low tone, "Come on, miss," (meaning for that patient to hurry up in the bathroom.) When I went in, I was on the other side of the stall, I didn't see most of her body, but I could see the top of the stall, and part of her head above it, so I rushed out into the hallway and said to the young man who had been watching her: "She's hanging herself!" He dashed in and got her out, and we alerted other staff as well.
On both of these occasions, I was thankful to be in the right place at the right time.
In February or March 1991, I was an inpatient at the institution, and I went into the bathroom a minute after a female patient who was on constant observation had gone in. A male staff, who was really not qualified to be watching her as he was only a kitchen worker, kept saying to himself in a low tone, "Come on, miss," (meaning for that patient to hurry up in the bathroom.) When I went in, I was on the other side of the stall, I didn't see most of her body, but I could see the top of the stall, and part of her head above it, so I rushed out into the hallway and said to the young man who had been watching her: "She's hanging herself!" He dashed in and got her out, and we alerted other staff as well.
On both of these occasions, I was thankful to be in the right place at the right time.
In both of these instances, I felt as though the mental health system was lacking in support - in the first paragraph, I didn't see how they expected me to get her into a cab - they just should have called an ambulance right away. In the second paragraph, there were not enough qualified workers on staff (the young man was only a kitchen worker).
I hope things have improved since the 80s and 90s, when these two incidents occurred.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. I hope things have improved since the 80s and 90s, when these two incidents occurred.
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