The small rural hospital in Windsor, Nova Scotia, had the distinction of being situated close to the highway. The nurses who worked in the Emergency Department had seen more than their fair share of odd characters. One day in particular a very strange and obviously chemically fogged young man wandered in with a badly fractured arm. He was loud, verbally abusive, repugnant, obnoxious, and in tremendous pain, which did not help his temperament. He wouldn’t give too many details about himself, or the fractured arm, saying that someone had dropped him off on the highway and he walked to our hospital. He produced a health card from another province, said that he was whoever the name on the card said he was, and it had to be left at that for now. He was prepared for the Operating Room and brought to us in the OR in a fairly sedated condition. His arm was realigned by the surgeon, a cast applied and he was taken to the Recovery Room. We all waited for him to wake, wondering what his response would be after an anesthetic.

And wake he did, yelling, banging, screaming, punching ,swearing, throwing things, and none of us could calm him even with the Morphine that was administered. It was sheer chaos in that room, and thank heavens he was in there alone. I thought at the time that I was fairly fit and strong, but I was no match for this difficult out of control man. And being struck in the head by a plaster of Paris cast didn’t help!

Finally my friend and coworker, Dolores walked in, and walked up to the aggressive man, with us warning her to watch the flying fists and pillows. Dolores was a nurse who had worked Emergency before coming to the Operating Room and she was small but mighty. Nobody crossed her and got away with it!

"Oh, yeah, we’ll see about that!" she said over her shoulder. All those years in Emergency Room Nursing had taught her how to deal with the combatant patient.

She looked down at the wild, unmanageable young man and said loudly "Lie down, be quiet, and stop being so mean to those nurses. Do you hear me?"

Everybody held their breath.

"Why should I listen to you?" the patient asked, his cast punching at her while she stood just far enough out of reach to really anger him. "You’re not God are ya?" he went on to say.

With that ‘Dolores the Daring’ put her hands on her hips, ready for battle, and pulled herself up to her full five feet two inch height.

"No, I am not God! However I am one of his angels and you are going to lie down and be quiet this minute! Do you understand me?" she bellowed.

The angry young man looked her up and down, flopped back on the pillow and never uttered another swear word, or threw another punch. After that moment everything changed. He turned completely around, used please and thank you when appropriate, even at one point saying ‘Thank you, I really appreciate it!"

Dolores kept dropping in to assess him from time to time, he even went so far as to smile at her. He was not going to tangle with this nurse anymore!

We were speechless with astonishment! And we all watched her as she went on to her other work.

"Ya just gotta know their language and give it back to ‘em!" she told us as we stood with our mouths open.

And certainly nobody was going to argue that point after witnessing this interaction. Thereafter she was given the nickname "ANGEL", a name she certainly earned and deserved. Unconventional approach maybe - but effective. And Dolores entered our memories never to be forgotten!! She said all it came down to was the fact that these rude people needed to be told they were rude, and it was totally unacceptable .And that was that!!

She was so right!!

Bonnie Jarvis-Lowe, RN. Ret’d.

"Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate or value into your life." Northrup Christiane

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