Smackdown at the Asylum

To borrow an introduction from the TV show: 24 – “The following events occur from 6:30 to 7:30 A.M. “
It was a pretty uneventful night with just two new admissions and nobody acting out. We had just finished taking all of the patients’ vital signs when we heard someone crying in one of the rooms. She had just been punched on the face by her roommate for no apparent reason. We tried to verbally intervene with the perpetrator but she was gesturing as if she wanted to strike at us too. So we summoned her nurse and as soon as the nurse entered the room, the patient went after her. We had no choice but to grab her and pin her against the wall. She had escalated past the point of no return where verbal interventions or an offer of medications would no longer have helped. Even when she was pinned against the wall, the patient kept on fighting. This was a woman who was probably 5 feet 2 inches and 130 to 140 pounds, but she was surprisingly strong despite three or four staff members holding her. A decision was made to take her to the seclusion room and on the way there she kicked another patient in the belly. We placed her on the bed and held her hoping to ride out her aggression and waited for her to get exhausted. But still, she kept on trying to fight us. In the end we had to apply leather restraints on her limbs and give her an injection to calm her down. We have been trained to try as much as possible to avoid placing patients in seclusion and restraints, and to use that intervention only as a last resort. Besides, there is too much paperwork to complete when you have to restrain a patient. Considering how the situation quickly escalated, we did what we had to do to prevent further injury to other patients, the staff, and the perpetrator herself. The only thing I didn’t like about the situation was the adrenaline rush at a time when we were about to go home and go to sleep. With the body and the mind in such a hyped-up state, it was difficult to fall asleep. But with the help of some fine cheap wine, I managed to get into a 3 ½ hour stupor. I’m back at work tonight ready for more action or preferably no action at all.
To see other entries about my job here are a couple of links:
http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2009/05/night-at-asylum.html
http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2009/06/crazy-night-at-asylum-isnt-that.html