Pretending

If you are going to fake something.. do yourself a favor and at least do a half decent job. The nurses might be mad at themselves for missing it but will at least give you credit for beening credible.  Do a bad job and they will just laugh.

The patient was brought in by ambulance. She had experienced an event that would normally raise the suspicion for significant injury. But she had seemed alright at the scene. the paramedics had walked her to the ambulance and then walked her into the hospital.. but at triage things changed, she became "unresponsive" and was rushed into the trauma room with the paramedics thinking the worst. I assessed her, she woke up abit didn't talk then was out again but by the time I finished starting a line, put her on the monitor and assessed her neuros she woke up again abit and said a few things and then "unresponsive" again.  Lying there eyes closed, not moving or responding to things we did to her and a vague complaint of neck pain we decided that we needed to c-spine her just to be sure but the story and how she was acting wasn't really adding up.  A and I decided to get the belt and jeans off before we did this.  I tried to open the belt clasp and was unsuccessful, A tried and she couldn't get it either. Dr. E. started to make comments.... asking how many nurses it took to undo a belt.  I just laughed and asked him to try. He couldn't get it either =) The paramedic was standing there with his scissors ready to cut when I had a idea.  I called the patients name and asked her to undo her belt or else we would cut it.
Eyes closed nothing else moving she opened her belt clasp then put her hands back at her sides and once again went "unresponsive". 

Fabulous.. I love unconscious patients who can not only undo their belt clasps but also lift up their bottoms and lift their legs so we can get their pants off.