Cameron Bell - post 2

I am still absolutely in love with my project. The overnight hours are getting easier and easier, meanwhile the excitement keeps me awake. On my most recent shift - a Saturday night - the so-called "bewitching hour" lived up to it's reputation when all of the bars closed and the partiers began wondering the streets. It seemed like all at once when a flood of patients came through our doors, some in worse health than others. The common variable was drugs and alcohol, playing a part in almost every case.
I turned towards the bloodcurdling scream that came from the direction of triage (intake). A clearly intoxicated woman rolled in on a gurney, holding her right, upper arm. The EMS technician explained to us that she was very drunk and had fallen and injured her arm. I looked at the woman and noticed that she was missing most of her teeth, and those that she had were rotten and brown. I turned to Dr. Rose and without asking the question, he explained that she was a meth addict and that the missing teeth were called Meth Mouth. She was a common visiter in the ER because of her drug use and her abusive boyfriend, but they had never seen her in this bad of shape.
After doing an X-ray, we saw that her arm was severely broken and displaced. Her screaming continued as we checked her blood for toxins and found a dangerously high blood-alcohol level. Dr. Rose explained to me that every hour, they can lower a patients blood-alcohol level by 20, so our patient would be stuck with us for about 9 hours to get her to a safe level.
Dr. Rose introduced me to the orthopedic doctor who was on that night. After our introduction, I was told to follow him into our now sleeping, and loudly snoring patients room. On the table, I saw tools for casting an arm. The orthopedic doctor explained to me that our patient was going to need surgery to fix her arm, but that would be done in a week or so. In the meantime, her arm needed to be casted. I then learned that I would be doing the casting. He took her arm by the hand and - too aggressively - lifted her arm off the table. She woke up with a cry that made my heart break for her. She began begging him to stop and praying to God to get her out of this pain, asking what she did to deserve this. Without responding, the doctor turned to me and told me what to pick up from the table and what to do with it.
With his instructions, I casted the patients arm through her screaming and crying as I caused her pain. It was incredibly difficult to know that I was hurting her, but I knew that I had to keep moving. As I finished, he set her arm down and her screams turned into a soft cry as she fell back to sleep. I looked at the doctor, frozen stiff, thanked him for the experience, and quickly ushered myself out of the room.
I was so shaken up having to do that to that poor girl, but I kept telling myself that I helped her. I have many more stories that I cannot wait to share!