I just got in from a boring and, at times, frustrating shift at work. The shift started off pretty good. A domestic disturbance right off the bat, followed with a call of an unknown person snooping around an abandoned house. The usual type stuff. Then, another officer comes on the radio and says that the person he just arrested and was transporting to the county jail, just passed out on him and so he was now headed to the E.R. This happened about 16:15 hours, the officer was suppose to be off duty at 1600 hours. By 17:30 hours, I’m at the E.R. relieving the other officer. No biggie. A nice little break and I’ll be out arresting folks within 30 to 45 minutes, right? Nope. I’m there for 4 hours. Why? Well, keep reading…
It seems the prisoner had a bit of medical history. Most of which I’ll leave out as it bears little importance to this story. He had been the lucky recipient of a liver transplant a couple years prior, but had run into some problems with it two weeks ago. Supposedly his body was trying to reject the organ. Of course that wasn’t a problem when he was arrested earlier for shoplifting at Wal-Mart, just when he’s in route to the jail. Anyway, the E.R. staff run every test they can on this guy. Everything comes back good. But, the guy is having spasms in his sleep (which is all he did was sleep, for hours). Each time he had a spasm, his pulse jumps from low 80s to around 115. So what’s wrong? I mean, something has to be wrong. He opted for a catheter instead of peeing in a cup. No one would do that unless there was something major wrong. I’m assuming prior head injury, but that’s just me. I’d rather do just about anything than have a catheter put in.
Well, the guy’s family is yelling at the E.R. staff and the E.R. doctor is getting fed up. About that time the lab calls with the results of the urine analysis. The doctor happily tells the family they they’ve found out what the problem is. Of the seven drugs the hospital screens for, this guy tested positive for five of them. 5! FIVE! 1,2,3,4,5 of them! Cocaine, Meth, Weed, opiates (codeine or some such), and something in the Valium family of drugs. No freaking wonder he passed out in the back of the squad car!!
Then, after he’s discharged and the orderly is wheeling him out to my car, his family walks up. Twin sons crying, daughter crying, wife crying. And I’m standing there thinking. For some unknown reason, this man’s first liver quit on him. Praise God, he got a second chance to live and watch his kids grow up. But does he take advantage of what’s been given to him? No, here the fool is with 5 different types of drugs in his system, being wheeled out to a police car to be put in jail for shoplifting at Wal-Mart!
I can honestly say that I don’t hate anyone. But I will readily admit that there are times I really hate dealing with stupid people.
