Excuses, excuses!

If you are like most people, when you were a kid you went to a public school.  And during that thirteen years or so, you probably had to be absent for one reason or another, and to avoid censure and punishment by the school authorities, you had to take in a written excuse for that absence.  Maybe it was from a parent or guardian, maybe it was from a doctor.  And in some work environments now, especially in the more menial labor situations, absence from work requires a doctor's note or other documentation.  It's often true in the carpet and other textile mills that are numerous in this part of Georgia.

Readers of my blog probably know that my wife is an ICU charge nurse, and (without violating HIPAA regulations) that she often comes home with interesting stories to tell.  Some are sad, some are funny, some are sadly funny.  Here's one of the latter.

A couple of nights ago, in the middle of the night, a patient was admitted for overdose.  He was a young man, in his early twenties, and had been with a couple of his friends, chewing on fentanyl patches.  Yes, that's right--chewing on fentanyl (synthetic morphine) patches. I guess it has become a common form of abuse when those patches are available, but whoa!  Dangerous, very dangerous.

His buddies who were doing this with him noticed that he was not in good shape and panicked, going for a ride and dumping him on someone's lawn.  He was found there by a stranger, 9-1-1 was called and he was transported to the Emergency Room.

Anyway, this young man was hospitalized and in the ICU.  Last night, he had some visitors... I would assume NOT the "friends" who decided that the best course of action when he overdosed was to drop him off in someone's front yard.

When visiting hours were over, one of the young man's visitors came 'round to my wife at the nurses' station and asked, "Will you write a note that says I have been here visiting my cousin?  It's for my employer."  My wife, not wishing the young fellow to get into trouble for an act of kindness, gladly wrote that VISITOR had spent time that night visiting with PATIENT, and she signed it. The visitor was thankful, and left.

Today someone from the hospital administration called to ask Lara some questions.  It seems that a probation officer called about someone at the hospital in the county's Electronic Monitoring Program. The admin person and Lara were both puzzled, as they knew of no patient in the ICU who was in the program (no electronic bracelet was on any patient.)  Then the admin person mentioned that the probation officer had received a note with my wife's signature on it, from one of his "clients" who is on EMP.  Light shone through the darkness!

The young visitor had been embarrassed to admit that he was on the monitoring program, but to cover his derriere he asked for a note to explain his absence from his "workplace." (I guess he was not supposed to be absent from his home while wearing the ankle bracelet, which was covered by the jeans he was wearing.)

I guess everyone needs a good excuse now and then.