He’s done.
He spent a large part of his 46 years hittin’ the bottle.  He spent the last year or so in and out of the hospital with GI bleeding, cirrhosis, Hepatic Encephalopathy, and infections.  he spent the last night of his life intubated while a gastroenterologist worked furiously to stop bleeding in his esophagus.
Alas, he […]

ERP (walking into the ER at 9am, about to take a sip of coffee): “Good Morning, How was your weekend?”
Nurse: “Fine, get into room 19″
ERP: “What?”
Nurse: “Get into room 19, you need to tube this guy, I think they just started compressions”
ERP (heading over to room 19):”Great, what a way to start”
Two minutes […]

Listen, if you are going to stumble around intoxicated in a nice, upscale community, there are proper ways to be behave. I am sure some of the residents there also overindulge on occasion but they follow some simple rules. One very important one is to avoid the urge, no matter how strong, […]

In ironic coincidence with the 50th anniversary of the Woolworth lunch counter sit - in down in Greensboro, NC (the counter and stools are part of the Smithsonian now), I had a patient who staged his own sit - in, albeit under less noble circumstances. He marched into a local diner and plopped himself down […]

So, my hospital, as well an many others I suppose, have certain criteria as to whom they send their Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores to. The policy is (and should be) that they do not send them to patients who present with psychiatric symptoms and/or alcohol or substance abuse related complaints. It does not have […]

Reading this brilliant parody of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” gave me an idea. Here is my ER-esque version of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
Half asleep, half intact
Half alive onward,
Cuff’d and cursing the cops to Death
Intoxicated kindred
‘Forward, the Drunk Brigade!
Charge the triage nurse!’ he slurred;
Into the valley […]

The other day I admitted an elderly woman for abdominal pain and ETOH withdrawal. Pretty sad.
About two hours later there was a “rapid response” call to one of the hallways in patient floors. I knew that meant trouble for us (since they send visitors down to us if they go to ground). Anyway, it […]