They Were a Little Too Eager
Before I got into medical school I worked as an orderly in an ER. At the time, the university hospital was getting all the “good” trauma and we got the routine stuff.
Some of the younger and more enthusiastic nurses really wanted the more “challenging” cases, the kind of stuff you see in movies.
They were a little too eager for it, maybe. This one day, an old guy came into the triage office and the nurse asked him what his chief complaint was.
The man answered, “I was shot—,” and before he could finish, the nurse leapt into action. She called out a trauma code on the intercom overhead and demanded a stretcher.
All of a sudden, everyone came in running and threw this old guy down on the stretcher, and began racing him to the trauma room.
Everyone was in full “TV nurse” mode. The nurse started cutting off the man’s shirt and yelled, “Sir, where were you shot?” The man, a little confused at this point, yelled back, “In Korea!” We all looked at each other and slowly came to a halt in the hallway.
Everyone turned to the nurse, who was looking quite sheepish. The old guy looked around and continued, “My knee hurts when it’s going to rain.” surfwaxgoesonthetop