Anyone who works in the emergency department would tell you that when it comes to Halloween, the costumes can get elaborate. Not only can the costumes be elaborate, but some people take their costumes a little too far.
Today’s story is another tale from Sealy Crider, RN, and it takes place one Halloween night a few years back. Sealy received an alert about a patient that the EMTs were bringing in through the trauma bay.
According to the EMTs, this patient was a college-age male who was found in the middle of the road, and he was unresponsive. They found the patient with bruises and lacerations all over him. There were no witnesses to what happened, but they assumed a car hit him.
The trauma team began working to stop the bleeding. The trauma surgery team began to prepare the operating room, and the providers ordered CT scans and X-rays to see how bad the internal damage was.
The team assumed he broke multiple bones based on the swelling and they feared severe internal damage. As the team was working to stop the bleeding, one nurse removed her gauze from a wound and noticed the man’s skin came off.
This was very odd, and the team immediately started thinking there was something deeper going on. They began to assess the other wounds. Carefully, the team checked his other wounds and bruises. One by one, they all started to disappear.
Sealy and her team called the trauma surgeons and asked them to pause their efforts in prepping for surgery. They explained the situation, but the surgeons asked them to triple check everything. They saw the patient. It’s safe to assume that some wounds are fake on Halloween, but they know a trauma patient when they see one. They were convinced the emergency department team was missing something.
Upon reviewing his CT scans and X-rays, they determined this patient was completely fine. His scans were spotless. However, when they received his blood test results, his blood alcohol level was incredibly high.
Sealy placed an IV for the patient and gave him fluids. The team gave him a sponge bath to remove all his fake wounds. When the patient woke up in the morning, they discovered what happened.
The patient had been drinking the night before at a party and had too much to drink. He left the party very late at night and was walking home because he knew he couldn’t drive. He stumbled into the road and passed out. Because it was so late, there weren’t many cars on the road. A car must have passed by and called in the accident when they saw him.
Luckily, the patient was able to go home completely unharmed, other than his hangover. The trauma team had never been so relieved to know they weren’t actually needed.
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