You Can't Fix Stupid

Working in a big city hospital, I see and hear a lot of wacky things. And yet, there are still some things that surprise me.

I was walking down the hall when I patient came out of her room dressed like she was headed outside. I figured she was headed out to smoke. A social worker was reviewing her chart at the time and told the new mom that she needed to wait a few minutes because the she was about to come in to talk to her. The patient said, "I just need to run outside for a minute, I'll be right back." The social worker, matter-of-factly and plain as day, loud enough for me to hear as I was passing by, said, "Are you going out to buy drugs?" I just kept walking and didn't look back.

There was a family who was being counseled about the baby they were about to have. The ultrasounds had revealed spina bifida and the baby was going to be born via c-section and taken straight to the NICU for evaluation to determine if the baby needed to be transfered to the local children's hospital or if it would remain in our NICU. After the extensive counseling session with a social worker, OB-GYN, neonatalogist, NICU nurse, and patient advocate, the father-to-be asked, "so will the baby be able to stay in our room with us the whole time?"

There was a baby who did not pass his hearing screen in the NICU and I was working with the family trying to get the out patient appointment set up and give directions and instructions for where they needed to go and what they needed to do. The mother and father lived at different addresses and when I was writing down the address for mom and giving it to the follow-up facility, dad kept asking if I needed to change the address to his. I asked him where the baby's full-time residence would be and he said the mother's home. I told him that was the address we needed for the paperwork. We went through it 3 times before he stopped asking me to change the address. Later on, right before they were were leaving, he asked the nurse, "when are you going to put the chip in his neck?" Huh?

Nurse: I'm sorry?
Dad: You know, the chip so we can find him if he gets lost.
Nurse: We don't do that here.

What did this guy think? That his child was a dog? All I can figure is he may have seen the Duracell commercial with the child locator (which creeps me out anyway) and didn't realize it was a key chain type device you attach to the child, not a chip you implant in their neck!

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24 weeks today :-)