Friday, November 25, 2005

In the Raw

I thought I have seen it all. Going on duty in public institution for almost 2 years now have jaded me. There is really nothing that surprises me at all lately until my last duty at the ER.

We had a 32 year old male who is an inmate at the City Jail. It wasn’t the first time that we had an inmate for a patient. We have seen lots of this in our Surgery rotation. This male was complaining of difficulty of breathing at the prison and was having cyanosis so he was referred to our ER for further evaluation and management.

After having his chest radiograph and arterial blood gases, our resident decided to request for further work up. Our patient suddenly complained of increased difficulty of breathing. So we requested for a tank of oxygen when he suddenly jumped out of the window. Unfortunately for him, he slipped and fell on the floor. Needless to say, he was apprehended before he could even escape.

What shocked me most about this event was the way the police treated this guy. I know that they have every reason to be mad at him. But wait till you hear what these people actually did to him. I thought that the media is biased against all the policemen when they show tapes of police brutality. Boy was I wrong because we all saw it for real. They kick him in the face, gut, and back with their combat boots. One officer even drew out his gun. The patient is practically on the floor bleeding in the mouth and head and probably having a concussion at the moment from all those kicks. It’s obvious that taking out a gun wouldn’t do much but scare us civilians.

The worse part is they didn’t even try to hide it.

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