Do not judge lest ye be judged.

What a busy night for ETOH. We had at least five, but I may have simply lost track. One of the guys apparently crashed his ORV and hit his head. After he was rushed to CT, and he was starting to wake up, he was mumbling things. He said, "I have to go pee."

One of the nurses decided she had to put a catheter in, and nothing was going to stop her. She ripped down his pants, at which time the patient said, "Where are my legs."

"You can't feel your legs." She started poking his legs.

"You took my stuff away," the guy said. Apparently he couldn't find the worked "pants" in his scrambled alcohol saturated brain.

"I'm putting a catheter in you," the nurse said, "You're going to feel something cold."

"You will NOT touch me! I don't want that!"

"If you don't cooperate we'll have to hold you down!"

Now, I understand it was a busy ER that night, and the adrenaline was flowing, but I am a firm believe if a patient is adamant you just leave him alone -- drunk or not.

If there is one thing I've learned working with people the last 12 years, it's that when confronted with an undesirable option, most normal people's initial response is defiance. Then, after given time to think, they reconsider.

I mentioned this to the nurse. She said, "He's drunk. He deserves a catheter."

I stepped back, and got ready to help hold down the patient. I knew I was not going to stop the RN I knew the RN was not going to be stopped, and she wasn't.

I'm not picking on this one nurse, because this seems to be the general philosophy of nurses and doctors & other medical staff with anyone who drinks. They say things like: "Since he's abused his body he needs an incentive not to do this again."

That's also the reason every other invasive procedure the doctor can think of is ordered on these patients -- including ABGs.

Fine. I understand this philosophy. But I also understand that not every person who drinks is a drunk. In fact, most are not. Yet in the ER, all of you who drink are drunks.

But my opinion on this philosophy is that it is a bad philosophy. While many people drink, few are drunks. Likewise, all people, no matter how good, are fully capable of making stupid decisions. And just because someone has one bad night, drinks too much, and ends up in the hospital, is no reason to treat that person like he's a loser.

In fact, the person I wrote about yesterday who came in with a 476 ethonol level was not a loser nor a drunk. In fact, he works in a hospital in another town. He's like you and me, only he made one dumb decision not to cut himself off.

I've seen people come into our ER after doing something stupid, and those people aren't treated like losers. So, just because you don't know someone is no reason to alter this special treatment.

I'm sure every person who is reading this has done something he later regretted, including those who work in the ER who are so perfect they use the power they have to treat those having a bad night like dirt.

Likewise, every time a person walks into the hospital reeking of alcohol that person is immediately deemed a loser by medical staff. The truth be as it is, there are many members of the community who drink responsibly, and for whatever reason sometimes one of these people finds his way to the ER, either as a patient, or as a concerned mom or dad or friend.

Yes, there are those who deserve to be treated as dirt, but not every person who drinks. In fact, I've seen just about every member of that same ER team at bars or partys, or heard stories about their attendance at such places.

So, lest ye be perfect, one should not be so quick to judge. Or, stated another way, do not judge lest ye be judged.

He almost drank himself to death

The page said the ambulance was 5 minutes out, but when I arrived 2 minutes later the patient was being wheeled in. He was a 20 YO non responsive. He reeked of alcohol. The family said he had between 20 and 40 beers at a family outing.

He did not respond to the testicular squeeze the doctor performed -- not good.

He did not respond to the chest rub, nor the foot rub -- not good.

I prepared the ETT and the doctor stuck the blade into his mouth, and the patient gagged. That was a good sign. In fact, the patient gagged enough that the good doc wisely deferred sticking the tube into the young man's airway.

As the blade was extracted from the patient's mouth, the patient started to spew lots of secretions, and for fear he might puke we were all ready to turn the board sideways. The worse news was the direction they were planning to tilt was in my direction.

"Let's get him some Zophran," I heard someone say. I prayed that stuff worked fast, because I hate puke. I especially hate puke when it's coming my way and there's nothing I can do to get out of the way.

The good news is he did not puke. The better news was he was still breathing. So, because he had fallen and hit his head, we rushed him to CT. The results showed no bleed and no spinal injury, which was also good.

The EKG I did upon his return showed ST elevation, though. That was not good. While he escaped head and neck trauma, he may have drank himself into an MI at 20 -- once again, not good.

But he was breathing on his own, that was good. And he was waking up. The first words were of the sorts that cannot be repeated. And his parents came in and said he was a 4.0 student who was just having a good time with his friends and family.

I imagine he won't be drinking for a while. Once I deemed my services would no longer be needed, I left the ER. In the hall I ran into the good doctor. He said, "A person is considered drunk when his ethanol level is 80. This young man's ethanol level was 476."

Hopefully the EKG was just a fluke thing, and all this man will suffer is a major 2-3 day hangover. I can't imagine it will last much less than that. I've been drunk a few times in my day, but there always comes a point when my body says enough is enough.

Social drinking is good to do if you can handle it, and you can do so with a degree of responsibility. Apparently this man couldn't handle it, nor the responsibility. There comes a point when common sense must prevail, 4.0 GPA or not.