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The worst April fool's joke I've ever pulled occurred at 7 AM on April Fool's Day, 1983. I was working nights at the hospital, in Emergency(ER), and things were a tad slow, time to liven things up, just a little. (Note: it may be a bad idea for a nurse to have too much time on her hands....)
There was a nurse, who worked in the Intensive Care Unit, when I was working in ICU, (please don't misunderstand, but)...I really liked this fellow and he was great to work with,(we'll call him B.). I had recently transferred to Emergency (ER) and felt that, since B had pulled a prank on me before I left ICU, that it was payback time. (And, as everyone well knows, paybacks are a bitch)!
The scenario, then (to help you readers who don't go near hospitals) is as follows. M, the other nurse on duty in ER with me that night agreed to go along with my prank, and "play dumb". Her playing dumb was crucial to my plan. In the ER at the hospital where I was working at the time, was a direct hook-up of our heart monitors to the ICU (this is referred to as telemetry). So, we could use our monitors for patients, see their heart rhythms on our monitors, but...so could ICU. B. took his job VERY seriously (I can hear people now, saying to themselves "well it should be taken seriously"). I just had to get him, and that was how it was going to happen.
A little background: I am well aware that the monitors are so sensitive to any movement of the patient or leads (wires) connecting to the patient, that it would look like a rhythm disturbance was occurring when the patient moved. (Monitors sense electrical activity, and since basically our muscles all run on electricity (electrolytes - yes, we're just large, mobile batteries), the monitors will pick up the slightest movement). I had also, recently discovered that if one was to tap one's chest with the monitor leads on, one could produce what looked like premature ventricular beats. (These are often the forerunners to V. Tach and V. Fib, potentially life threatening rhythm disturbances).
Often, with V. Tachycardia, there is no blood pumping through the ventricle to keep the body systems going. With V. Fib...which often follows V. Tach, (if the V. Tach is not treated), the heart is 'twitching', and no blood is moving through the system at all, clinical death).
So...I went into the Resuscitation Room (exactly what it sounds like), hooked myself up to the monitor and stood letting my normal heart rhythm show on the monitors. I gave it, oh, 2 minutes, then I tapped my chest once. Result: Beautiful premature ventricular beat. Another couple of minutes passed and I tapped my chest again, this time 4 times. (Result: beautiful, classic-looking V. Tach). The phone in the Resus Room rang, M let it ring 3 times, then picked it up: "Resus Room" she answered, then added, "Yes, B., I know, we're with the patient, working on it now, thanks." Then she hung up.
Another couple of minutes passed, and I did it again. Then I stopped tapping, and my heart 'rhythm' became normal on the monitor again. I let that go for another minute or so, then started tapping my chest....this time without stopping. The phone in the Resus Room rang and rang.....no one answered it. I looked at my watch, as I heard from far away down the hall and around the corner, the door to ICU slam shut. There was the sound of keys jingling and running feet (as I kept myself in V. Tach). Five, four, three, two, one...I counted. As B ran into the department, he was yelling "Call a 99", M! Your patient's in V. Tach!!!!!!"
As B. charged into the Resus Room (on the dead run), I (who was leaning against the head of the stretcher by the first monitor, looking up at the monitor, tapping rhythmically on my chest), turned calmly to look at B, and said: "April Fool!!!!" The doctor on duty, and M. were pretty much ROTFLTAO!!! I couldn't, I just kept a straight face and stopped tapping on my sternum (breastbone). B. stopped, horrified, (and stupefied) and quietly remarked: "You B*tch". At that point, I just had to laugh.
B. took it fairly well, after all. I unhooked the monitor, and we went out to the desk, all of us laughing. He did say though, as he was leaving to go back to ICU: "Okay, Bunny, you got me, this time...but you just wait, paybacks are a b*tch". The rest of that shift was uneventful, and B never did pay me back, or did he??? He went back to University and became a doctor.
He's a great family doctor now, and he cares very much about his patients. The last time I saw him, a couple of years ago, he just grinned at me, and allowed as to he had "borrowed" my joke in Med School, and it was a hit!!!!
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