Attention SOBs June 9, 2007
Posted by keepbreathing in health, health and wellness, hospital, medicine, nebulizers, patient safety, respiratory therapists, respiratory therapy, shortness of breath, stupid people, tobacco, work.trackback
Attention, SOB patients:
I understand that shortness of breath is frightening. As an asthmatic, I have experienced the terror of breathlessness more than once myself, and it is the most terrifying experience in the whole entire world. I also understand that it can take a few minutes for us RTs to drop what we are doing to attend to your shortness of breath, and I apologize: waiting for a treatment is not fun.
But the second you step outside of the ER door while waiting for a nebulizer treatment to go smoke a cigarette, you make me hate you. You will be my lowest priority of the entire night. If you are complaining of shortness of breath, and then actually going outside to smoke between or before treatments, you are either too stupid to be alive or you are colossally ignorant.
Stop wasting my time. I could be treating actually sick people.
Sincerely,
Anonymous Therapist
The best is when we get a SOB call and I have to ask the patient to put thier cigarette out so that I can put them on o2…if they aren’t already on it.
That is the truth if I have ever heard it. Now, if we could just get those ignorant SOB’s to your blog!
Thank you for saying that, RT !
A woman was brought in by ambulance into the emergency room one night with the tops of her breasts and her upper thighs burned off — charred black — she had lit up a cigarette while on oxygen…