You sometimes need lie detectors in the ER:
The same emergency rooms that treat the overdoses have also seen an increase in the number of healthy patients trying to scam doctors out of the very same drugs.“There are people who make a living going into the ER with fake injuries to get drugs,” said Dr. David Heller, an emergency room physician at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. “It’s a constant balancing act, trying to do what’s best for the patient and trying to keep them from having a side business.”
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{ 2 comments }
I had an addicted patient who would hit himself with a baseball bat, then go to ER with real injuries, to get narcotics. His job involved travel, so he could go to different ER’s constantly. It unraveled during a pause in his travelling when he had to go to the same ER a few times.
I also had an addicted patient who admitted that she and her girlfriend would intentionally “beat each other up,” get bruised and bloody, and then both go to an ER to get narcotics.
How funny is it that people can remember that they are allergic to toradol, codeine, all NSAIDS, tramadol, inapsine, phenergan, imitrex? But when it comes to the one that “works” they say “Doc there is some medication that starts with a D, di? or dem? or something like that, do you know what medication that could be? Doc, do you what I am taling about??
Or how they can be asleep when you walk into the room and then suddenly moan in pain when you wake them up?
Or how they can turn instantly from being sickenly sweet and flattering to “YOU SON OF A BITCH, I’M GONNA CALL MY LAWYER”
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