The night before Halloween this year was a limited more active than we would have liked it to be. Within the first 60 minutes of being on the unit, the shift narrative had not even accomplished yet, and a fight broke out. The male staff screamed for more help and the staff was able to get in in the middle of the two males and break the fight up. One had his nose pouring with blood, dripping all over the floor and all over his clothes. Not only was his nose bleeding, the other outpatient had deep teeth bites where he had been bitten. A grown man bit him hard enough to break the skin in three places! After two hours of paper work and lots of washing clothes and getting things cleaned up, we were ready for the rest of the night, or so we thought.
Another staff and I were talking about the many Halloween we had spent on the unit and some of the things that had occurred. Without even giving it a second conception we both agreed the most memorable event was the hanging that happened 7-8 years ago. Of all the nights to have someone commit suicide, not that any night is good for that, Halloween seems to have continuing results on the staff. Very few of the ones working that night are still employed; one quit the next day.
Halloween
She had been a long term outpatient on the unit and had become very close to many of the staff. She was a very sweet lady who came in very depressed. For weeks on end she stayed to herself and did very limited for her own personal hygiene. She was our outpatient for one solid year, giving her and the staff time to become friends. Just a few weeks before Halloween she began to get better and the treatment team decided it was time for her to be discharged; she would go home the day after Halloween.
She was so excited and arrangements we made. She started wearing makeup along with her favorite blue denim bib overalls. She was only 5'2. She all the time sat close to the desk and talked to the staff after a lot of the other patients had gone to bed. This night she went to bed early. When sleep checks were being done she was cleaning her room and nothing was out of her routine. She told every person good night and shut her door. She had been in the hospital long enough she knew the staff and what time the sleep checks were to take place. Her plans had to be very well timed; every 30 minutes someone would be looking in the door.
Close to 9 Pm, when the staff did a routine check, the door opened and the staff screamed as she stood in shock as she looked into the room of this limited woman in front of her bureau's door. She had strangled to death by just lifting her feet off the floor until she passed out and the sheet she had used continued to smother her wind pipe.
A code M was called - (this is a curative code called for an injury). The staff came running. Crash carts with Cpr supplies came bumping straight through the doors. The doctors arrived, an ambulance was called, the ward quickly filled with activity. every person was hoping it was a trick... For Halloween.
The staff worked hard to get her to respond; she never did.
No one knows why she chose that route and the interrogate came up, how did no one see that coming? She had reached her goal to go home and was unquestionably looking send to leaving...or so we thought.
The atmosphere on Halloween is separate on the units; we seem to be more alert for unusual behaviors. Like this night when the staff and I were talking about the past, we were quickly brought back to the present as a outpatient walked out on the hall dripping blood from his mouth and nose. It was not a general nose bleed. It was pouring like a faucet. Once again for this one shift we spring into action to care for someone on the unit. Mounds of paper work, call the Dr, lots of cleaning cloths. After getting the outpatient clean clothes and washing away all the blood from a 30 limited pouring nose bleed, it was time to go home.
Halloween Nurses Costume Is Not all the time a Party
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