Many moons ago I worked in an ER that treated the prisoners from the local Maximum security prison.
The prisoners always came in leg and arm shackles which weren't removed during their stay. That made starting an IV etc. kind of a challenge but you learn to adapt.
At first I was nervous taking care of the prisoners, being at a maximum security usually meant murderers or worse, but the reality was they were always quiet, soft spoken and extremely cooperative with us.
You could kind of tell the seriousness of the offense by the number of guards that escorted the prisoner. The usual was two so that there was always at least one at the bedside if the other guy had to use the restroom. Once in awhile three, which meant either it was a severe crime or the guy had tried to escape before.
One day I got a prisoner that was coming in for evaluation of infected decubs (decubitus ulcer or more commonly known as bedsores.) This particular patient had been incarcerated in the hospital cell block for years. He had multiple CVA's (strokes) and had a trach and a PEG tube. He was completely aphasic and had no purposeful movement of any of his extremities. His arms and legs had contracted him into a permanent fetal position. Basically he was in a permanent vegetative state. He arrived in shackles with FOUR guards. Yes, four. The only prisoner that I ever saw do so.
I don't know, he didn't look like a huge threat to me. Personally I felt that whatever atrocity he committed was partially negated by being forced to live like he was. He didn't appear to be much of a flight risk but I guess they weren't taking any chances that he was faking (for 13 years.)
Friday, May 25, 2007
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4 comments:
crazy ... 4 guards .... glad you didn't have to find out why he was there ... haha
Um, you know, sometimes the number of guards has as much to do with the prisoner's security as well as the public's. Although people get locked up in prison, information (i.e., that Street Name is going to Your ED) can get out fairly easily.
KC Saul is right. I used to work inside a max security environment as the SOLE ER nurse there. Regardless of the inmate's condition, security level is security level and you would be surprised what they are capable of faking (we had one that spent a week in ICU for head injuries after a "use of force" with nothing more than sinusitis clinically found). So they prefer to err on the side of caution. Even so, policies remain and even a dead inmate has to remain shackled (outside the prison) until the crime lab takes the body. They're not in there for singing too loud in church.
A pediatrician I used to work for did physical exams for kids entering the local juvenile detention center. The kids would be brought in the back door of our office, all wearing shackles. The officers accompanying the kids would remove the shackles so that we could get an accurate weight. (Strange to think of a pediatric growth chart plot getting skewed by the weight of shackles, isn't it?) One day, they brought in a 16 year old girl. I asked the officer, as usual, to remove the shackles when I was ready to get a weight. He just looked at me and said, "Um...not on this one."
Never did find out what she did that landed her in juvy. I don't think I want to know.
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