NO duragesics in the mouth -- okay

I was called to ER because we had an OD patient being wheeled in. The EMT was bagging. I assisted with the scooch over from the EMT cart to the ER bed. Then I took over bagging.

"Oh, not again," I thought. "I'm so sick of being busy all night because some person tries to kill herself."

The patient was vomiting. Oh, if that's not the grossest part of this job I don't know what is.

She still wasn't breathing, so as soon as she was done I rolled her back to her back and started bagging again. But, as soon as that Narcan was given, the patient was breathing again.

Dr. Click ordered for an NG, but as it was being inserted the patient started vomiting again. She vomited and vomited and vomited until there was a humungous pile of puke sitting there on the bed, floor, patients hair and everywhere.

"Oh, I think I'm going to puke," Dr. Click said. She looked like she might puke too, except for her smile. She was a cutie doctor.

Anyway, by the time she was done puking that second I looked up at the doc and said, "So, I bet we don't need to tube her now."

"No," she said, "I think what we were trying to prevent already happened."

Later, when the patient was being wheeled up to the critical care, she said she was in so much pain she put the duragesic patch in her mouth. She passed out.

The EMT later told me when they arrived the patient was lying on the floor all cyanotic and all, and the family was on the couch watching her. One of them said, "Yeah, I think she OD'd again."

The patient later admitted, "I was just in a lot of pain. I wasn't trying to kill myself."

In the hospital you never see it all.