One night I worked a shift in our normal coverage area. It was a Sunday night, so I didn't expect it to be too busy, and it wasn't.
Our only call for the night did leave me wanting to punch multiple people though. We were dispatched to a home for a 14 yo girl who was dizzy. And ambulance had been previously dispatched, but then canceled by police while still en route. Our dispatch came about 1/2 hour later.
We were met at the door by a police officer who stepped outside to give us forewarning that "Mom is wasted." Sure enough, inside the house I see another police officer trying to talk to the mother, who we'll call June (Leave it to Beaver irony, obviously) for our purposes here. June is walking around the living room, obviously drunk. Well, we can't say that. We can say she was belligerent, combative, had an unsteady gait, was non-sensical, and smelled very strongly of EtOH. Anyhow, the 14 year-old girl, who I'll call Cindy, was slouched on the sofa, while an 8-10 year old boy (henceforth known as Bobby) was standing in the living room, observing everything.
I let my male partner deal with PD and with June, and I bee-lined to the girl. She's coherent, alert, and doesn't appear to be in immediate distress, but is complaining of dizziness, shakiness, her "head is spinning", and dry mouth. She says it started a while ago, so she called 911, but then her mom made her cancel the ambulance. But it came back so she called 911 again. PD is telling my partner they don't want to do a breathalyzer on June because then they'll be forced to send her in to the ER with us for detox admission.
So, I have a sick 14 year-old girl, whose only parent is wasted beyond belief, and a younger half-brother who can't take care of himself. Can't leave the boy with mom. Really shouldn't take the girl without a parent. What's the solution? Guess they're all coming with me.
I put the Cindy on the cot and buckle Bobby into the bench seat. Normally I'd put him up front where there's a better seat belt, but he looks a little small for the airbag, and anyhow, I want June up there so we can restrain her as much as necessary and keep her yelling drunken self away from Cindy. Bobby isn't even phased by any of this. He's not concerned about the slurred, drunken profanities being yelled by him mom in the front seat, nor being in an ambulance, nor the sight of his sick sister.
That, alone, terrifies me.
I start checking out Cindy. She has no meds/history/allergies, and her chief complaint hasn't changed. Her gait was steady on the way to the ambulance. LMP was 2 weeks ago. She ate dinner tonight, no caffeine or energy drinks today. She's sinus tach at 140 or so on the monitor, 98% pulse ox, and her blood glucose is 136 mg/dl. Respirations are 24-28, skin p/w/d, PERRL, motor intact. But her blood pressure I get as about 165/90 in her left arm. Uh, she's a normal-looking, average weight 14 year-old girl. That blood pressure is through the roof, even if she's agitated/stressed/scared. I had my partner double-check in the right arm, and he got 170/90. Well, so something's not right. Cindy gets an IV.
On our way into the hospital, June is alternating between sobbing about how she looks, being paranoid that she didn't lock the doors, freaking out about not knowing where her phone is, or screaming back to her daughter about how she knows she's not really sick and "don't need no ambulance." At one point, she even grabbed my partner's arm and tried to turn the steering wheel to get him to pull a U-ee and go get her phone.
You can imagine that went over well.
I also spent a few minutes on the phone with the boy's father, telling him which hospital we were all going to. He was trying to get out of coming to pick the boy up, since he "doesn't get along well with [his] ex" when she's like this . . . well duh, no one does, and I imagine she's like this daily. I informed him that his son needed his father to come and remove him from this situation, and that in my opinion, it would be in no one's best interest to do otherwise.
We had security meet us at the ER doors for mom. And here's the kicker. They did nothing. Once they determined we didn't suspect direct child abuse in this case, they just put her drunken ass in a chair next to her daughter, and let the three of them sit in the hospital room together. All the while she's still alternating between sobbing and telling her daughter she doesn't really need a hospital.
The girl is sick. There's no normal reason for her BP to be that high. She needs a loving caring mom, and if she can't have that, the LAST thing she needs is to be exposed to more of her mom's BS while she's in the ER.
Here's what worries me:
1) The son had no reaction to the trauma at all. That means that not only is he exposed to it often, but that his coping mechanisms are in full-swing and he's in trouble one day.
2) I hope the girl gets the treatment she needs. I would put money on her having a serious illness, (before you say she's was stressed and anxious, that still shouldn't get her BP to 170/90), and I worry that she doesn't have family to help her get the treatment she needs.
3) I doubt anyone called child protective services on the mom. We reported it in our charts and incident reports, but the hospital seemed so non-concerned. I hope they do more.
Here's hoping I helped a little.
But what's a drop of help in an ocean of insanity?
