Or am I? The other night, while on Pediatrics ward call, we admitted a young boy with a pretty bad case of croup, stridorous (or stridulous for those of you who are strict about your grammar [ {Stridulous laryngitis} (Med.), a form of croup, or laryngitis, in children, associated with dyspn[oe]a, occurring usually at night, and marked by crowing or stridulous breathing]
Well it turns out that this patient was the son of Semi-Famous Movie Actor Guy and about 5 or 6 hours after admission, he decides to take his boy and walk out of the hospital. Just like that. No explanation, no asking if it would be “ok”, let alone safe for his child. He said that he couldn’t sleep in the hospital Why is it that people think that they will sleep well @ a hospital? It’s not the Hilton, you know! Don’t you love it? And the frantic nurses paging the Fool twice within 30 seconds, as if it was a code blue or something!
Well, nowadays, at Teaching Hospital USA it seems like people ge to do just whatever they please, and the poor residents on call get to be underpaid and under-tipped Concierges. No respect for what we might have just a teeny bit of expertise in. If Semi-Famous Movie Actor Guy decides it’s time to go, well, then that’s that! Well, if you want me to be a Concierge, then at least you should have the courtesy of giving me a tip on your way out! And don’t ask me to find you tickets to Cirque de Soleil! -Fool