The Thin Man.
I am terribly sad about this....I learned at work a few weeks back that the medical examiners office (from a state about 12 hours drive from us) called one of our social workers, then spoke with the MD. My wonderful, brilliant, humorous and handsome patient is dead. I try really hard not to cry at work, but when I got in my car, I cried.
In my line of work, what happened to him is referred to as "Folie a deux", and it's pretty rare. In other words, he and his wife shared their insanity. To illustrate: she ONLY came to see him on day of discharge to pick him up, and even then brought a VERY well know PhD and friend with her. She was afraid we would lock her up, she didn't know "the rules" of what you must say to get admitted to a psych hospital. He had prevented her admission to our hospital years before, with a convincing argument with the ER doc.
But, here's the word on the unit about it......she drove him to a hospital. She went into the ER and said her husband was in the car, and not well. No doubt the ER nurses and techs ran out to the car....and found a very dead man. In fact the ME reports he had probably been dead between 8-12 hours. Probably from starvation and dehydration. This is a very painful way to die. There was no need for this to happen. This is what we call "total treatment failure". In psych, we don't normally have a lot of deaths. Yes, an occasional suicide, or sometimes even natural causes. But this???? It breaks my heart.
His siblings from around the globe actually called us, when they couldn't get him on the phone. Not the police, not his internist, and of course they had already spoken with his wife....who wouldn't ever put him on the phone. His social worker did call the police, who did do a "safety check". That means they forced his wife to have him to come to the door so they could see he was there and alive.
His wife failed him.
His sisters and brothers failed him.
His friends failed him.
Our society failed him.
His world failed him.
I failed him.
I have always thought we should have a mechanism in place to "follow up" with our patients. I always write our phone number on the discharge instructions and say "please call if you have any questions, ask for me, I'll try to address your concerns, because it's so much easier than an ER visit". Many patients have indeed called. I think we should make that phone call. But I have never pushed for this to happen.
Say a prayer tonight for "The Thin Man".
While your at it, say one for me.
I am terribly sad about this....I learned at work a few weeks back that the medical examiners office (from a state about 12 hours drive from us) called one of our social workers, then spoke with the MD. My wonderful, brilliant, humorous and handsome patient is dead. I try really hard not to cry at work, but when I got in my car, I cried.
In my line of work, what happened to him is referred to as "Folie a deux", and it's pretty rare. In other words, he and his wife shared their insanity. To illustrate: she ONLY came to see him on day of discharge to pick him up, and even then brought a VERY well know PhD and friend with her. She was afraid we would lock her up, she didn't know "the rules" of what you must say to get admitted to a psych hospital. He had prevented her admission to our hospital years before, with a convincing argument with the ER doc.
But, here's the word on the unit about it......she drove him to a hospital. She went into the ER and said her husband was in the car, and not well. No doubt the ER nurses and techs ran out to the car....and found a very dead man. In fact the ME reports he had probably been dead between 8-12 hours. Probably from starvation and dehydration. This is a very painful way to die. There was no need for this to happen. This is what we call "total treatment failure". In psych, we don't normally have a lot of deaths. Yes, an occasional suicide, or sometimes even natural causes. But this???? It breaks my heart.
His siblings from around the globe actually called us, when they couldn't get him on the phone. Not the police, not his internist, and of course they had already spoken with his wife....who wouldn't ever put him on the phone. His social worker did call the police, who did do a "safety check". That means they forced his wife to have him to come to the door so they could see he was there and alive.
His wife failed him.
His sisters and brothers failed him.
His friends failed him.
Our society failed him.
His world failed him.
I failed him.
I have always thought we should have a mechanism in place to "follow up" with our patients. I always write our phone number on the discharge instructions and say "please call if you have any questions, ask for me, I'll try to address your concerns, because it's so much easier than an ER visit". Many patients have indeed called. I think we should make that phone call. But I have never pushed for this to happen.
Say a prayer tonight for "The Thin Man".
While your at it, say one for me.
This is hard stuff. Prayers for everyone. (including you meredith.)
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