Chapter Ten
Another Code Green
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
Helen Keller
Violence broke out almost daily within my walls, in one way or another. It was as natural as when the sun rose daily in the east. Max was eating lunch in my large cafeteria with doctors, and patients considered safe enough to be there, or medicated enough to be there. Meals were sent back to my units where those not considered safe enough ate their meals.
Max was eating at a table with a couple of the doctors, when the intercom interrupted his meal with “Code Green, New Directions! Code Green, New Directions!” As always, when a “Code Green” was called, Max bolted for my door to go assist. In emergencies, Max did not care one iota for manners when his patients or staffs were in danger. He never said words such as, “Excuse me,” nor did he try to grab one last bite of food. He just became focused on minimizing violence.
Fortunately, New Directions was about twenty-five yards from my cafeteria, so Max did not have far to run. He was pulling his keys to my New Directions unit out of his right hand pocket as he ran. He had the New Directions key out of his pocket and in his right hand, in the right position to slide into the lock, before he reached my large steel door. He looked through my twelve by twelve inch bullet proof glass door window located at eye level before inserting the key to assess the situation, and insure that no one was attempting to escape while he opened the door. It was safe and he rapidly opened and closed the door behind him.
He saw the nurse in the nursing station to his left, where the nursing station was located, as she was pointing to a room on the left side of the nursing station. He noticed another nurse in the middle of the unit was telling the patients in their rooms, “Everything will be OK, just please stay in your rooms.”
Max moved quickly to the room where both nurses were then indicating. As violence is more terrifying to patients than staff, Max only noticed a couple of the more violent patients looking out their doors. As I read his mind, he was thinking that most of them were probably curled in the fetal position on their beds, or hiding under their pillows and blankets on their beds. I could see that he was right.
As he moved toward room 2, he could here a female patient screaming, and several staff voices. He stepped into room 2, and he observed approximately ten staff, from large male orderlies, to small female nurses circled around a female patient, swinging an old style razor blade, with sharp razor edges on both ends, at the staff. “I’ll cut you all up...
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