Well I finally got sent to jail. I knew they'd eventually catch up with me one of these days. Actually, I got sent to jail (or Gaol if you prefer) 3 times in two days!
First it was to Juvee (juvenile) jail, the children's 'prison' for a chest pain. I could tell the medical staff there thought the young man was "putting it on". I thought so too. But everyone was erring on the side of caution so we took him to hospital along with a carload of minders who would have to sit with him until the doctors decided he was clear to head on back.
Next day it was off to one of the city Police Stations for a prisoner who was having a seizure. This guy was doing a pretty good job of it too - except he was opening his eyes every now and then and looking around to see who was watching. I have found a lot of people in police custody think that if they get taken away in an ambulance, whatever charges the police have laid are suddenly going to disappear. It rarely works. People invent all sorts of medical complaints and an ambulance has to come down and check them out. Often we all know its crap - the prisoner knows its crap, the prisoner knows that we know its crap and the hospital staff give us 'the look' because they know its crap too. Everyone is busy covering their butt.
Last thing before we knocked off for the day, it was off to the Remand Centre in the city. This inner city prison is the full deal and security is tight. Our patient was 'generally unwell' and although he was simply complaining of stomach pain and nausea, he was a bit agitated and twitchy. He kept yelling out to someone who was obviously held somewhere near enough that he figured he could be heard yelling his obscenities through the walls. The staff kept telling him to pull his head in and answer our questions. There was clearly a lot more going on than we were party to. After checking him out, we saw that he wasn't dying and the medical staff had him well under control.
We got out of prison for good behaviour and felt very grateful to be going home.
1 comment:
I remember doing psych assessments at MAP (remand centre),fun stuff, Lots of them put it on so they could get transfered to the green hills of the psychiatric prison.
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