Whoa!

So I don't know if it made the news out west but a medical helicopter crashed at a hospital yeserday in Grand Rapids (an hour west of here). Crazy story but everyone was okay. But I had a crazy ridiculous emergency of my own last night! (FYI, this is a long story, sorry)...

So I was the triage nurse last night at work. That means I check people into the ER then tell them repeatedly how "no we still don't have a room for you and no I don't know how much longer it will be." Anyway so around midnight a BIG (6'3" 300lbs) man in his 40's I'm guessing walked in the doors and sat down without checking in. A Lansing police officer happened to be standing at my desk with a patient of her own she brought to get checked out from jail (also known as "jailitis" ). The big guy walks up to my desk and says, "I need to go to the 10th floor where my dad was in a coma and to the 7th floor where he died." Apart from the hospital not having a 10th floor there is no way I'm letting him anywhere besides the ER. (Did I mention I took care of him earlier this week and found that he is mentally ill and has a drinking problem?) So after we told him no, he got a bit upset and the officer asked if he had stopped drinking after she busted him earlier in the day. He says "not particularly." Well that just set him off then he started yelling at the top of his lungs and I knew somethin was going to go down. Then he starts talking about the cop's gun and the last straw was when he moved in on her. It all happened so fast then and he was behind our desk and I'm waiting for my security guard next to me to do something and the LPD cop is trying to call on her radio. She happened to hit her emergency button and I kid you not, no more than 30 seconds later we have 15 LPD officers running at us and we are evacuating our waiting room of patients!! I sneaked my way out of danger and watched from the desk as the cops crowded him into the corner. It got scary when he talked about pulling out his "switchblade" and then they clobered him. We were just waiting for them to taser him! It was pretty sad though cuz once they got a hold of him and were cuffing him he started saying his Catholic prayers!

I really do feel for the mentally ill and unfortunately they get lost in the system and society and end up with problems like this. Long story short, he spent another hour or two in our ER to cool down then the cops took him to a mental health treatment center. I really do feel for the guy cuz he has gone through a lot of crap in his life and I think just seeing the officer again after she busted him earlier set him off. But boy am I thankful for the LPD officers!! I will gladly pay my taxes to support them cuz they saved my as* today! Thanks guys!