Nursestories

Posted on January 21 , 2010

Old couples in the ER rss

Not long ago we received a couple in their eighties who were in an MVC. The husband ended up having a spine fracture, but the wife was fine. Because she had alzheimer and her husband was her caregiver we couldn’t send her back home by herself. So during the five day hospitalization of her husband we kept the wife in the ED so they could both return home together at the same time.

That situation reminded me of another similar story that happened the previous year where an elderly man was brought to the ED for confusion. We had to put him on soft restrains while we’d investigate his situation. His wife, who was about the same age as the patient, around 80 years old, was at his bedside and would attend his every needs. Although she wasn’t desoriented the way he was, she did have some sort of mild dementia. Every 10 minutes she would come at the nursing station to request help for her husband. Several times we explained to her that since her husband was going to spend the night in the hospital it would be recommended for her to return home, get some rest and come back the next day. But she wouldn’t hear it.

When night time arrived, around 23h, we told the lady that we had a taxi ticket for her. She seemed to be cooperative. We escorted her to the exit and hailed a cab for her. Few minutes later she was back saying there was no way she would leave her husband by himself. All the nurses looked at the doctor with pity eyes and told him it was cruel to get rid the wife when all she wants is to be with her hubby. The doctor said that she was experiencing sundown syndrome and it would be hard for us to manage her if we kept her. And since she wasn’t a patient we couldn’t restrain her. We finally convinced him to make up some bogus reason to have her registered so she could spend the night at the ED. We placed her stretcher right next to her husband’s. She was able to hold his hand and both of them were calm throughout the night.

In a place like the hospital, rules are important in order to prevent mistakes from happening and also to establish a certain order of conduct. But it’s also a place where we deal with vulnerable people from different backgrounds. Sometimes we need to put the rules aside in order to share some form of humanity. I was glad that as a team we were able to accomplish something small that meant a lot to two people who cared about each other.

Posted by: RN13 0 comments