No Pants, no Shoes, No Problem?

[ralerin]

Lady (60'sish) came in tonight wearing a shirt covered with paint splatters just barely hanging below her butt and men's black trouser socks. Manager S2 asked what happened to her and she said she had just come out of the emergency room. She seemed quite lucid, but really, the ER lost her pants AND her shoes? She had no stitches anywhere I could see so I don't think they were cut off. I'm confused here.

[Polenicus]

Okay... so... you've just come from the emergency room. Whatever happened there, it cost you your shoes and pants. So likely, even if it wasn't a major injury, it most likely was harrowing.

So, your first response after being released is NOT to go home, take a shower, and try and get yourself together, replacing your lost garments before going out in public again, but to go to your local Mart-type store to browse the red tags?

... Did she at least purchase pants before leaving?

[ralerin]

No. My Aid of Rite DOES sell pants and shoes, though, cheapie sweatpants and canvas shoes. So she could have purchased something. She was in the pharmacy picking up some medicine so there might be some truth to it. Her daughter (assume it's her daughter) was wearing slippers and sweatpants. Maybe it's one of those things where she was having a heart attack and they were rushed out the door? But still, very odd to be without pants in public-her husband was the only one fully dressed. Why didn't she send just her husband in?

[Amina516]

If she wouldve asked, im SURE the hospital wouldve given her an extra pair of scrub pants. Seems like she didnt care.

[TelephoneAngel]

in British this means she was out in public with no underwear on, completely different scenario, had to think twice that pants means trousers in American.

[Sapphire Silk]

If she wouldve asked, im SURE the hospital wouldve given her an extra pair of scrub pants. Seems like she didnt care.

Don't be so sure. I'm an ER nurse, and I can tell you we likely would NOT have. Scrubs are expensive; we don't have a budget to give out scrubs right and left.

Usually, if a patient needs clothing, we ask them to have a family member or a friend bring them. If they are in the ER alone, we might give them paper scrubs (if the hospital has them) or something from the donation bin (a lot of the ERs I've worked in keep a bin of donated clothing for this purpose).

If I send a patient out in scrubs or a gown, it's due to extraordinary circumstances.

Don't know why she didn't have clothing: either she went to the ER like that, or they had to cut her pants off. Sometimes EMS does that, even though there is no obvious injury, to complete a secondary exam. If they can't assess through the clothes, off them come! I lost a brand new pair of jeans that way, after getting into a car accident; I had banged my knee badly on the dash and it was the only way they could look to see if I had a potential fracture.

That being said, if her husband was with her I don't understand why she came in. Did the pharmacy have a drive through? My Greenswal does. Either way, he could have just dropped off a script, taken his wife home, and been back by the time it was ready.

[Amina516]

If I send a patient out in scrubs or a gown, it's due to extraordinary circumstances.

Leaving in the middle of the night with no pants qualifies to me...

A gown or scrub pants would have issued, at least where i am. This i am sure of.

[ralerin]

@panacea: Yes; however it was past 9 and it closes at 9. Still. She was browsing the store for a bit too; it was only when 2 of my customers alerted me to her that I knew she was there.

[BlaqueKatt]

She had no stitches anywhere I could see so I don't think they were cut off.

my mom's clothes were cut off when she had a heart attack-no stitches for that...and yes everything was cut off-after getting her heart restarted they needed to be able to attach electrodes to monitor-cutting was easier....

[NotSoInnocent]

I once left a hospital dressed only in two gowns, a pair of surgery socks, and a couple of their "blankets"...

I'd passed out and gone into febrile convulsions in the shower. (pneumonia with a fever of 104.8 F) Ambulance ride to the ER in my birthday suit... with no way of getting me any clothes (no car and buses don't run after 10pm in my area). Sooo.... I got two gowns and a couple of blankets to walk through the mid-winter weather to get home. Fun times.

[Comechatcha]

Time I went to the hospital they gave me a set of scrubs when they had to cut my dress off (big nasty car accident). That was ten years ago and I still wear them as jammies (yes, I'm over twenty and still fit things I had in grade school). But I was eleven and a good ways from home, and heading straight to another further-away-from-home hospital to see my mom, so I guess it stands to reason.

[boringscreenname]

We had a guy code in our parking lot, who was wearing nothing but a pair of underwear. There was a lot of alcohol involved in that one.

Also had a college kid leave the E.R wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, hair disheveled, and electrodes still stuck all over him.