Don ’t Forget To Ask The Patient

Let the young know they will never find a more interesting, more instructive book than the patient himself. Giorgio Baglivi It was nearly two decades ago that I knelt on the floor before Sammy in the Santa Clara County Sheriffs booking facility. I remember him so vividly that it’s hard to believe so much time has passed. There was nothing exceptional about him. Handcuffed to the waiting area bench, he looked very much like you might expect a man high on drugs, being booked for petty larceny, might look. Sammy felt like his heart was racing and, given his drug history, the officer thought that he needed a once-over before heading off to the county lock-up. I, the young, scared, mostly clueless paramedic intern was doing my best to evaluate him. Growing up in a quaint California suburb I hadn’t crossed paths with to many folks like Sammy. He, quite frankly, terrified me. My preceptors stood back and observed. “Sammy did you do any drugs tonight?” I asked. “Yeah, I did a speedball about an hour ago.” He casually offered. I looked over at my preceptor Mark hoping for clarification. I got nothing. I looked back at Sammy and then again at Mark who smiled demurely. “What’s a speedball I asked?” Mark knew the answer but he had other ideas. He gestured toward Sammy. “Ask him. He’s the one who took it.” I looked back at Sammy. “What’s a speedball?” Sammy explained that a speedball was cocaine mixed with heroin. Two drugs that I had rec...
Source: The EMT Spot - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs