RE: Limited medical training; restraining and caring for someone
[quote=akozete]My characters are in an isolated area. The group usually includes a doctor and a couple of nurses, but they’ve gone off to do something else, and the only person left with any medical experience is the cook, who used to be sort of a field medic and occasionally fills in as an extra assistant. He’s good to have around in an emergency, but when the doctor left, it was with the assumption that the main group would be able to get back to civilization and a real doctor pretty quickly if necessary, which is no longer the case.
Unfortunately, one of their number has just snapped: they’re not sure if she’s taken something or if she’s just gone mad (she’s never been quite right in the head, but she’s always seemed harmless enough), but she’s been muttering to herself, failing to respond to most stimuli, has extremely dilated pupils, apparently tried to attack my MC, and, according to the people left to watch her (who are lying, but no one has realized it yet), had been battering herself against the door of the room the MC managed to lock her into. The rest of the characters are agreed that she needs to be restrained before she hurts someone (probably herself), but I don’t know how this would best be accomplished, and I’m not sure how my cook would be likely to go about it. The doctor did leave behind most of her medical supplies and would probably have had what she’d have needed for this kind of situation (although it’d be basic and only intended as a stopgap until they could drop the person off at a real hospital), and I don’t want the cook making any serious, dangerous mistakes. I’m also not sure if there’s anything else he should do afterwards, given that he and the rest of them will be stuck with the crazy character for at least a few days–should he just watch that she’s not obviously injuring herself, or is there some other care he should know to give her?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
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You and me write the same types of characters it seems. I got a doc that up and left a character with folks who’ve no idea how to handle him. He’s an extreme paranoid schizophrenic and prone to violent outbursts, due to extreme irrational phobias (such as fear that the house has come alive and is about to eat him, etc.). In my stories, the doctor is always busy off making house calls (it’s an old setting) cause he’s pretty much the only doctor in the area, so my schizoid gets left in the care of well meaning but uneducated folks quiet often.
My MC gets just like you describe your girl, only he also starts picking things up and just throwing them. Not really at any one, just throwing things around. (He can see “people/ghosts” that no one else sees, and that’s why he’s throwing things. He’s trying to get the “people/ghosts” to leave him alone. But the real people in the room with him, are not aware of this, they think he’s just gone nuts and thrown things for no reason.) He’s also Autistic, so even when he’s not having an “episode” his ability to coherently communicate with others is limited at best. Like most Autistics, he can write long lengthy descriptions of what he is feeling and on paper communicates perfectly, but his ability to speak verbally is limited at best, and like most “normal fols” that we Autistics have to deal with, no one is willing to read his written words, because they don’t have the time to. (Or course, if they don’t have time to read what the Autistic person wrote, than how would they have had the time to listen to them had they said the words instead of written them?) Most times he just sits quietly humming to himself and staring up at the ceiling – which is why the doctor sees no harm in leaving him with none medical folks, because usually he’s not hard to look after. It’s only when he starts seeing the “ghost/people” that he goes off in an uncontrollable and violent fit.
Usually, they try to hold him down, and tie him to the bed so he can’t hurt any one until they can get the doc back. If his house keeper/butler is on duty, the butler usually has the key to the manor’s medicine supply and starts just pouring stuff down his throat hoping something will knock him out for a few hours. Yep, I write classic Gothic: big manor houses owned by raving madman whom women fall madly (and illogically) in love with. LOL!
So, that’s how I handle it when my MC is having an “episode”. Don’t know if that is really helpful to you or not.
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In your case, I’m assuming that you have a modern day setting, based on what you’ve said. (Mine was 1700′s setting, so even when the doctor is there, there is very limited things that can really be done.) I would assume that some one in your group was wearing a belt, and would try to use it to strap the girl to a bed (if there is a bed) or a chair, or even just use it to tie her arms behind her back, so as to restrain her to some extent. They may try to wrap a blanket around her first, than hold it down with a belt, sort of making a make shirt straight jacket, to keep her from hitting or kicking any one.
I’m afraid I’ve never heard of valum and as for sleeping pills???? I’ve never seen a first aid kit with sleeping pills in it before. From what you are describing your girl is either Autistic or Schizophrenic, possibly even Schizotypal Asperger’s Syndrome (which I have myself, btw) which is an Autistic person who also has Schizophrenia. and no doctor in his right mind would ever recommend over the counter meds to either one. And believe me, that’s saying a lot, because I write about Autistic and Schizophrenic characters for a reason – both run deep in my family varying in cases from mild to out right off the wall outlandish to seriously dangerous to every one around them (and also Diabetes and Bi-Polar and had to care for a coma victim for a year as well. ) I write what I know. I have to deal with out breaks and episodes (including my own) on a weekly basis and we have med kits EVERY WHERE as a result – bathroom, bedroom, car, living room, etc.
(I’m just the one who always ends up taking care of every one, but boy do I feel like every one in the family thinks I’m their personal doctor some times – and I’ve never had any medical training at all!!! Believe me – it’s stressful and does not help my own symptoms any at all.)
In real life, what I do, the medical kit will have the person’s prescriptions in it. It will also have a chart in it, which say with meds are for what and how much to give when, and how to give it. Some meds are in pill form, but most are in vials and so I have to know how to remove bubbles from the vial, insert the needle, fill the needle to the right amount, and than where and how to inject the needle. The doctor is likely to have given the chart and meds to some one AND had that person give the girl a few test shots before leaving them alone with her. I know that is what doctors do, because, that IS what real doctors do.
Know that in real life, a doctor would never, never, never, NEVER leave a character like this alone with some one unless that some one had gone through a training course (which would last a week or more) taught by the doctor, and than had lived with the character AND a visiting nurse for another few weeks, so that the doctor was confidant that the person could handle be left alone with the patient if such an episode did occur. (I know this from personal experience.) This is not some thing that doctors do “just because” either – it is a federal law (in the USA), they ARE REQUIRED by the government, to have trained a relative or close personal friend in how to care for the patient, other wise the patient is NOT allowed to leave the hospital to begin with. And than that person is supposed to be with the patient AT ALL TIMES. It’s the law.
So, there should be some one in your group whom the doctor gave her meds to, and who knows how to give them to her and whom has already been giving them to her on a fairly regular basis, assuming your characters are in the current time period in the USA .
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Of course, you hit at foul play, so, the doctor could have unwittingly given the med kit to the character who may just have tossed it out the window and is now pretending they don’t know how to deal with this situation, even though in fact they do, because of some vile deviant motive, yet to be revealed. They could even be causing her to have the episode – maybe she needs certain meds through out the day and they haven’t been giving them to her on purpose? Maybe they know she has an irrational phobia that triggers these episodes – say she’s morbidly afraid of spiders and they put a spider on her hand, thus causing the episode to begin with. That sort of thing. The rest of the group would be clueless about what was going on and how to deal with it, and the one that is supposed to be helping her, could be pretending to be clueless as well.
Or, is it possible, that the situation is such that the person who knows what to do in these situations is now dead or unconscious? The doctor was confident leaving, because that person was alive and well when he left, but now that person is for whatever reason, completely unable to tell the others what to do to calm the girl down. That seems to be a very likely thing to have happened, and would thus result in the rest of the group panicking. Also, the girl would feel a deep connection of trust to the one who takes care of her, and seeing that person now dead or otherwise out of it, could very well have been the trigger to send her into her current episode. (Autistics and Schizophrenics are both prone to panic attacks triggered by separation anxiety and stress overload.)
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As for your cook. It sound like he doesn’t really know her too well, and he’s just there sort of filling in, on a just in case basis. Is that correct? That’s how I’m reading what you wrote at least. I could easily see him making a lot of mistakes, just because he is not familiar with the girl’s particular quirks and habits, phobias and fears. He could easily do something to trigger and even worse episode, with out realizing it, just by doing or saying something that frightened her. In both Autism and Schizophrenia you would be dealing with a person that has extreme paranoia and irrational fears of things that most people find ordinary – for example she may be terrified of spoons and think that any one holding a spoon is trying to kill her, and your cook may try to give her liquid meds via a spoon, causing her to become even more violent when she sees the spoon, but your group and the cook, would have no idea that the spoon was what triggered the attack – the doctor probably knew about this, but would not have thought to mention it seeing how he left assuming they would get to where they were going safely. So your group could be dealing with a potential explosive situation here that could get far worse and they would have no way of knowing what her fear triggers are.
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I would also suggest that you do a bit of Googling and look up so info about Autism, Schizophrenia, and Schizotypal Asperger’s Syndrome. Especially, look up the medical journal type sites, sites written by real doctors.
You might also want to read this site written by a patient with Schizotypal Asperger’s Syndrome: http://www.squidoo.com/Aspergers-Syndrome-and-Me to help you better understand what is going on inside the patient’s, head and see the world as they see it.
Sorry for the extra long post. Hope it helps you out some. Good luck with your story!
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