Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Good on the Aussies........

My Dysfunctional Nephew sent me this story from down under.

Hospital staff sick of violent drunks

"THEY spit, vomit, punch and kick. And Rockhampton’s emergency department staff have had their fill of them. Dr Henk Sigle said yesterday doctors and nurses routinely dealt with about 15 violent drunks every weekend who dished out physical and verbal abuse to those who were trying to heal them.

He welcomed the prosecution last week in Rockhampton Magistrates Court of a woman who punched a nurse in the face and revealed the torment faced on a regular basis by medics on the city’s accident and emergency front line."

This kinda shit happens with regularity at every ER I've worked. It does get old fast.
When I was younger I didn't mind so much. Not so much anymore.
I'm too damn old for that crap now a days and have a bad back to boot.

Abuse and assault towards staff has gotten worse and it's not always the drunken patient but often a drunken family member or friend nowadays.
All these assholes want to be John Wayne or some shit and go out in a blaze of glory I guess.
I'm pretty good at not getting my ass smacked, but sometimes they do fool ya.

For a long time it seemed as if we were just expected to put up with it. Not so much anymore and that's a good thing.

But even when you do press charges, it seems like they always get a plea bargain and the "Acting like a Drunken Shit-Fer-Brains in the ER" charges get tossed.
I will say that a lot of the younger cops are more willing to press charges on these assholes and that's ok by me.

I'm pretty sure that if you get and stupid and start causing problems in WalMart, the bank, grocery store, etc, the staff in those places aren't expected to just take it and hope that the perps get charged.

I have had to resort to whupping somebodies ass with an IV pole to protect myself in the past. Which is better than getting my own skinny ass whupped.

Few non-inner city ER's really have adequate security for a "Shit Hits the Fan on Saturday Night" and that's something I don't see being fixed anytime soon with the economy as it is. Fortunately, the cops show up very fast if we need 'em.

So far at least.

Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday Afternoon-
From Theo Spark
Click to embiggen