The Intern Blues(14)

At that point, we all moved in. Someone called security stat [immediately], and within a minute a phalanx of Mount Scopus’s finest emerged from the elevator bank and we had a standoff. The mother held on to the kid tight and shouted, “I don’t want my baby in this fucking hospital!” at the top of her lungs, which went a long way to put most of the other parents on the floor at ease. Next she yelled, “I know what’s best for my own fucking kid! If he’s fine, I’m taking him home! Just try to stop me!”

Attendings, house staff, administrators, and more security guards started to show up. The mother and her boyfriend got madder and madder. The boyfriend finally said, “We’re taking the kid out of here! If you don’t like it, you might as well shoot us in the back, ’cause we’re going!” The kid was screaming at the top of his lungs while this was going on.

The whole thing lasted about a half hour. It ended when an administrator, obviously someone who had majored in psychology and guerrilla warfare in administrator school, showed up and firmly told them that maybe they’d like to talk the whole thing over in the conference room. For some reason, the mother agreed and she, the baby, and the boyfriend headed off with him. I think our suspicions about the parents were correct. The BCW [Bureau of Child Welfare, the state agency charged with investigating child abuse] probably will be interested in doing an investigation.

I’ve nodded off to sleep three times while recording this. I think it’s time to stop.

Wednesday, July 17, 1985

I’m a little more coherent tonight, I think. Nothing much is happening. Elizabeth’s patient whose parents tried to kidnap him got sent home by Social Service last Friday. In their infinite wisdom, they cleared the family in two days. I’ve got a bad feeling about this family. I hope I’m wrong.

My patient with nephrotic syndrome is doing much better. Most of the swelling is gone, and he doesn’t look so much like Buddha anymore. Those steroids are amazing! We’re going to send him home in a few days; renal will follow him as an out-patient. They say his prognosis is excellent. The mother asked me if all this means he’s not allergic to trees. I told her I thought it probably would be a good idea not to go back to that LMD anymore.

Last night was pretty easy. I got four hours of sleep, and that’s been pretty much the pattern on Children’s. I guess I did kind of luck out when they switched me from 6A. Those guys have been getting killed. As far as I know, none of them have gotten any sleep on any night they’ve been on call.

Wednesday, July 24, 1985

I’m about ready to die. I thought I was bad that night earlier in the month when I was up all night, but this is ten times worse. I haven’t gotten any sleep for the past two nights, and I’m pretty worried about my grandmother.

I haven’t mentioned my grandmother yet. She’s my mother’s mother. She’s over eighty and she lives in New Rochelle by herself. I try to get over to her apartment for dinner at least once a week, usually on Tuesdays, if I’m not on call or too tired. I went last night and I found out she was really sick.

She’s got a bad cellulitis on her leg. She cut herself with a knife about a week ago. When I showed up yesterday, she was febrile and looked terrible; she could barely get out of bed. She showed me the cut; it was all red and swollen with lots of pus. Her temperature was 102.5, and I told her she had to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics. She said I was crazy. She’s a little on the stoic side. I argued with her for about an hour and finally convinced her to let me take her to the Mt. Scopus ER to at least get a third opinion. I got her seen without any wait. A medical intern looked at her and said, “You’ve got to come into the hospital for IV antibiotics.” She started to tell him he was crazy, but I guess maybe she really wasn’t feeling so well because she finally said, “All right.”

She’s on one of the medical floors. They put in an IV and started her on megadoses of pen and naf [penicillin and nafcillin, two antibiotics]. They didn’t get her settled until after two in the morning. I stayed with her until six and then went home to change my clothes and take a shower. I might as well just move my stuff over to the hospital. As it is, at this point I’m only just occasionally visiting my apartment.

Anyway, I don’t know how I got through work today. I’ve got seven patients, and I don’t remember what happened to any of them. I was like in outer space for most of the day. My mother showed up this afternoon to stay with my grandmother, and I came home. I’m going to sleep now. I remember sleep; I think it’s something that feels really good.