10/01/2009

What can you do?

I am writing this because... Well I need opinions and I need to get it off my chest.

So you are called to a house for an assault. Her roommate states that your patient stumbled into the house crying, bloody and very confused.

When you open the door to her room you find an approximately 18 year old female cowering in the corner. She is bloodied, her clothes are torn, and she is rocking back and forth slightly. As you introduce yourself from the door she doesn't move or acknowledge your presence. You slowly enter the room watching her and talking to her the whole time. Eventually you are close enough to see her well enough to start your assessment. You can see she is breathing, slightly fast but adequate. You observe quite a bit of blood coming from some deep lacerations to her face and arms. As you keep talking to her, your partner brings you a sheet to wrap around her while you take her to the hospital.

As you slowly move closer she still is not showing any sign that she sees or hears you.
**How do you proceed?

You touch her foot as they are the part of her closest to you. She looks up at you and starts rocking faster.
**What do you do now?

You keep talking to her and reassuring her but you back up a little to give her some space. You bring the roommate in, in the hopes that a familiar face will calm her down and it seems too. You have the roommate help explain who you are and what is going to happen now to your patient.

Eventually you get her in the vehicle and start towards the hospital. She still has not spoken but she is following simple commands and nods in the affirmative and negative in response to questions. She starts crying and grabs onto your hand. You just keep talking to her.
**What do you talk about? (Anything you can think of? weather, sports, school)

When you get to the hospital and the nurses take over and ask you to leave the room she will not let go of your hand.
**Do you reassure her and leave? Do you see if you can stay just a little longer? Do you out her hand in a Nurses and tell her that she will be taken care of?

** How do you decompress?
** What if this was your best friend, your little sister, your mom, your girlfriend, your daughter?
** What would you have done differently?

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