Ran a call the other evening for a 92 year-old female with a fall injury. Just the typical call we get when someone is aging and getting weaker. We arrived to find a neat "mother-in-law" detached house, nicely matched to a beautifully groomed house. Since it was dark and the houses were a bit off the street, the man of the house met us at the curb.
My engineer immediately recognized him and they began discussing the horrible fall he had about a month ago that broke off several of his teeth and from all accounts was a pretty bad fall. We went on up to the side house and met the wife with her elderly mother. The elderly lady was not significantly injured, but we decided to transport because she was generally getting weaker and the wife said she was not really able to take care of her mother so much. As conversation continued, the wife causally stated that she (the wife) had had two pulmonary embolisms within the past several weeks and had nearly died. Consequentially, the wife was in not position to care for her mother.
I continued to have a conversation with the wife as we "packaged" the patient and headed for the door. I said something about how the family was really having a hard time of it with all the medical issues. Then she turns and says something about her husband having his finger bit off. "WHAT?" I asked...
"Yes," she says, "he is missing about a half inch of his little finger." She continues to relate the story where their 24 year-old son had a psychotic break within the last few weeks (not sure about the time frame) and bit off the husband's finger and was now institutionalized.
Sometimes it is good to remember that we all go through some rough times and people next to you might be struggling more than you know...
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)