Cetkat Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 So, went to the hospital for a doc appointment today - got IBS flairup, and was basically stuck in the bathroom for a few hours. It's much rarer now that I'm an adult, but it is what it is. Especially when the train/walk back takes 40mins. Towards the end, this woman comes in and eventually asks me if I'm ok and offers to get help. I explain, and she gets it & revels that she's a surgeon there and was happy I was, I dunno, upfront enough to just explain truthfully? Or something? But then she keeps talking, and talking, and doesn't seem to be leaving. We were probably there for 40mins. Mostly she just brought up and talked about 80's comedy movies. I chimed in here and there. The distraction was mostly welcome after having been stuck there for like 2 hours just staring at the door. I finally just assumed she was avoiding her office. I get done, start to leave, and she decides to come out. She tells me that she had actually been assulted and had a head injury, and was in fact avoiding the ER area for fear that they'd notice & she'd be embarassed to be treated there. This info was scattered along more random talk... all the while with me putting on my coat and stuff to indicate I'm wanting to leave now. I was kind and receptive, but it was clear she didn't want any real talk or feedback on any of it. Then, before I could gracefully escape the chit-chat.. she told a knock-knock joke. The exact same joke she had already told twice (the second time, she hadn't realized that she'd already said it.. I was honest, and told her rather than pretending otherwise.. but people do tend to do that sort of thing when rambling and it's a go-to story they like to tell). But, now I know she has a head injury and thinks she may have some bleeding going on. So I do my part of the knock-knock joke again out of politeness, then tell her matter-of-fact that this was the third time she's told it to me. Well, she freaks out.. gets embarrassed or something, thinking I'm making fun of her or saying she's an idiot, that I'm not a doctor, and then litterally runs back into the bathroom stall and hides. I try to appologize and assure her I'm not judging her at all - which obviously, I wasn't. WTF lady?! Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! No, I'm not a doctor (though in actuality, I never talked about myself so that was an assumption on her part - especially considering it was now so far after hours that only security staff was still in this part of the building) -- BUT YOU ARE. You seriously don't want to know that you've just told a knock-knock joke three times in the span of 40 mins with no memory of it? Knowing you have a head injury that you haven't had checked out due to embarassment? You're still lucid. I just gave you a straight up fact that (for obvious reasons) you had no way of being aware of. No thoughts from me on the matter of any kind. You're the "Surgeon" hiding it and trying to handle it yourself, all while locking yourself in a bathroom stall - purposefully located pretty much as far away from the ER as possible while still remaining in the same building. How about a polite "Thank you for telling me"? Hell, even just an "Ok." The sad part is.. the way she spoke and how she said things did support her being exactly what she says she was, and not just some batshit random lady. She was also spot on perfect professional until realizing I wasn't in need of anything, decided she liked me, and dropped that mode without missing a beat. That's something that only comes with experience. The job and type of professionalism may differ, but that element of dealing with the public doesn't. **Just for the record, there's more than one ER in the hospital complex, and this building contained the non-trama one... that, and she was hiding a nasty bruise and scalp wound complete with dried blood with a long winter hat. So I'm pretty sure she wasn't sceduled for nor would make it into a surgery room. More to the point, I saw her lunch box and backpack on the bathroom stall floor... so considering she hadn't even made it to where you put your shit... yeah, I highly doubt she did anything but hide and find a way to leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissaw72 Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Hi Cetkat! IMO, a surgeon hiding in the bathroom to avoid something like getting checked for a head trauma is not normal and isn't safe ... I would not want that surgeon doing any surgery on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeruleanBlue Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Yikes. Weird. @Cetkat Is it too late to report this incident to hospital security? Very weird and disturbing. In other news, I hope you are feeling better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helloheartbreak Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Really, aside from her being spot on perfect and professional at first, how do you know she was actually a surgeon there? Sounds so bizarre to me that I don't think I'd take anything said at face value unless I had something independent like a hospital credential to back it up. Still not a bad idea to report it to security. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooster Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Head injuries cause people to behave oddly sometimes. In wilderness first responder training, they teach this as being a DIC-head: disoriented, irritable, and combative. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nervousbat Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 (edited) --- Edited May 9, 2017 by nervousbat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cetkat Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 (edited) On 3/4/2017 at 10:58 PM, CeruleanBlue said: Yikes. Weird. @Cetkat Is it too late to report this incident to hospital security? Very weird and disturbing. On 3/5/2017 at 2:51 AM, helloheartbreak said: Really, aside from her being spot on perfect and professional at first, how do you know she was actually a surgeon there? Sounds so bizarre to me that I don't think I'd take anything said at face value unless I had something independent like a hospital credential to back it up. Still not a bad idea to report it to security. I don't know for sure she was a surgeon, but she did have a MD level badge. I saw it in the stall with her stuff. And she was in there for quite some time without being paged. I'd think if she were in a lower position, she wouldn't have been able to get away with that. On 3/5/2017 at 4:41 AM, Wooster said: Head injuries cause people to behave oddly sometimes. In wilderness first responder training, they teach this as being a DIC-head: disoriented, irritable, and combative. Yes, this fit her to a tee. The irritability and combativeness just seemed to trigger embarassment, fear, and hiding. On 3/5/2017 at 0:16 PM, nervousbat said: Wow that is quite the situation! What I learned is that it not only effects memory but it also effects your mood and causes mood swings, which my dad said he was having, saying he randomly felt very sad all of a sudden and was near tears. It also effects rational thinking, so it could explain why she was acting so funny. I think it's important to insist that the person gets help when they have a head injury, especially when there is blood involved. And if they are freaking out and won't come out of the bathroom, bring a nurse or doc to see them. Even if they're still standing and talking you never know how serious the injury might be. Yeah, it was sudden swings and irrational sad/fear/hiding. The blood itself was minor and clotted.. you could tell it had been at least an hour from that and the bruising. She had a clear head.. we talked about specific movie scenes in detail.. things neither of us had seen in years.. quotes and all.. so I took that as she's not dying. Her rationality and mood was just all over the place. In hindsight, I perhaps should have gotten a nurse from the ER -- left out the surgeon employee bit and just said there's someone in the bathroom with a head injury. But after being at the hospital for 7 hours... I was just done. Especially after she bitched me out. It was like - fine - hide in the bathroom. You're declining care, and you have enough rationality left to know what that means. It's on you. And nobody in their right mind was*(edit) going to let her anywhere near patients, let alone surgery. But more than that -- that's the building I go to for services. And I have no idea where she stands in the hierarchy. So unless she looked like she was in need of life-saving care... (which she didn't) - I felt letting the hospital staff handle it (they'd see her eventually) was preferable to making an enemy who could affect my care. Edited March 16, 2017 by Cetkat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooster Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 It's a reasonable plan, I think. She wasn't unconscious or obviously grossly impaired (trouble walking, slurred speech, etc.) It definitely does shake up our conceptions of health care as a safe environment to have weird interactions with someone who is ostensibly a medical provider there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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