Quite a week in the psychiatric unit
I knew when I started trying to help out in psychiatric units, that there would once in a while be some very chaotic situations.
I started visiting Gregory (not his real name) about 3 months ago. I went in to see him for an hour or two every Saturday. At first he was in a normal low-to-medium security ward, but then he succesfully escaped and was brought back by the police a few hours later, so since then he's been in the high-security ward.
Five days ago, Gregory's sister Melanie (not her real name) messaged me to say that Gregory was on life support in intensive care after ingesting a poison.
Gregory very nearly died.
Here's the email that I sent to the hospital yesterday:
Quote:
Hi
One of your patients in Hazelbrooke Ward, a male in his 40's named Gregory Washington, is across in the main hospital building right now in the ICU after having ingested a poison.
It was about two weeks ago that I first saw Gregory drink hand sanitiser. He had two of the portable 'Cutan' bottles hidden in the socks he was wearing, and he clearly showed me the label and pointed at the text which read "80g / 100g ethanol". I immediately understood that Gregory was drinking it to get drunk on the alcohol.
I first reported this to a nurse in Hazelbrooke about two weeks ago. Since that time, I haven't seen Gregory with a portable bottle of hand sanitiser, so I just figured that staff had taken all the hand sanitiser away from him and made it unavailable to him.
5 nights ago, Gregory and I were sitting chatting in the reception of Hazelbrooke. There is a sanitiser dispenser mounted on the wall in reception, however Gregory didn't go near it for the entire time we talked. However, just as I was leaving, a nurse was letting me out, and I heard a noise behind me... I looked back and saw Gregory pumping the wall dispenser. I immediately told the nurse "He's drinking that", and I also told the nurse that I had reported it before.
Gregory is very intelligent. He will pretend to have no interest in something he wants, and then he will wait until your back is turned to quietly and discretely take it.
I realise that hand sanitiser saves lives and that it's necessary in a hospital, but maybe Hazelbrooke should be an exception. I really do think that you should remove all wall-mounted hand sanitisers from Hazelbrooke, including the reception and toilet, and make it at a rule that you can't bring hand sanitiser in there (or any highly-concentrated solution of an alcohol like ethanol or propanol).
One other thing: If you ever notice that Gregory's eyes are unequal, it's because he's blind in one eye from measles as a child. His next of kin, his sister Melanie, confirmed this for me a few days ago.
I hope to continue visiting Gregory weekly when he's back in Hazelbrooke.
Thomas
(also known as Haridas)
