Floor Patient

Has anyone looked in Charles Manson's cell to see if he's missing? I think he's a patient here. A man looking just like him was found lying in the street after being hit by a car. He now belongs to us.

We don't give patients alcohol or street drugs, so he went through a brutal detox. Now he's sober and I liked him better before. He used to be fairly easy to take care of, but now he's constantly trying to get out of bed and he can't walk. Plus he's a complete raving lunatic. He's too sick to know that he's sick and we can't force psyche drugs on people.

At the beginning of the shift, we found him lying in a pile of loose stool. His hands were covered in it and everything he touched was gooey brown. Washing a poop covered homeless person while they are screaming profanities is not the most enjoyable experience I've had. I also accidently stepped in some of the poop on the floor and tracked it across the carpet. (He was my second patient tonight who played with poop. This gets old really fast.)

He also has a skin disease that makes him look like a leopard with big flakes of dry skin falling off and floating through the air. I have a photo of his skin, but decided not to post it. He also has several blood borne, incurable illnesses.

The doctor decided that it would be a good idea to tie him to a wheelchair and bring him to the nursing station. We weren't happy about sitting next to a stinky homeless person who was leaving a trail of skin flakes, but what could we do?

Because he was so agitated, we also drugged him. He almost slid out of the chair when the drugs took effect, so I picked up his legs and someone else pushed the wheelchair to get him back in his room. We weren't strong enough to get him back in the bed and so he ended up sliding onto the floor. We got the lift team to get him back into bed.

Even though he was tied up, he managed to slip out of the restraints and we found him standing next to the bed. Grabbing him, he started to collapse and once again he landed on the floor. I decided to leave him on the floor for the rest of the shift and get him back in bed before the next shift arrived. We put pillows and blankets under him and no longer had to worry about him falling. I told the house supervisor about our problems with him and she said to just leave him on the floor. Once she thought about it, though, she decided that we shouldn't do that. I wonder how the next shift is doing.