Sunday, August 17, 2008

Allah will get me, apparently

So we get a call to go into the psychiatric inpatient ward to deal with an unruly patient. When we get up there, the nurses brief us on the situation in their office. One of the nurses tells me "she's highly psychotic and a very devout muslim," and tells me that previously she had objected to bloodwork being taken by a male because "males aren't allowed to see her skin." We agree that it would probably be best if we maintained a low profile while dealing with her, if possible.

We enter her room, and she starts arguing with the nurses. She refuses to take the meds in pill form, so the nurses decide to go hands on and instruct us to hold her down so they can deliver the meds via IM. She objects, saying that males aren't allowed to see her skin because it "angers Allah," to which the nurses respond "well tough shit, you should have just taken the pills instead." When we're rolling her over onto her side, she starts screaming "Allah will get you for this!" The nurses inject her up the ass, and we disengage. Later when we're debriefing inside the nurses' office, she comes back up and starts screaming at us "you guys are idiots! Can't you see how they're using you as pawns in their cruel game?" We 'escort' her back to her room, and by now the meds have started to kick in so she's out like a light.

Apparently she's seriously mentally ill, and refused treatment until her husband basically ordered her to go for treatment and she's since been certified. I don't condone the kind of family unit that her home clearly operates under, but in this case her husband's ability to order her to do something was probably best for her in the long run.

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