“Patient Combative”
It was around 1 AM when the nurses called. I pulled on some jeans and a shirt and walked over to the hospital, more than a little nervous in the middle of the Baltimore night.
It seems that Pam had been making a ruckus. She was arguing with the nurse, demanding nickels and dimes so she could use the pay phone which she saw hanging from the IV pole next to the bed. “My husband told me I could call him anytime and he’d be right here. He said even if I was only scared I should call him! I want to talk to my husband!”
After three weeks, they we able to get the breathing tube out of her and she was slowly emerging from the coma. But the long stay in the ICU had taken its toll.
Collateral Damage: A Patient, a New Procedure and the Learning Curve 