Page 10 - January Magazine
P. 10
The Patient Whisperer
A short story by Erika M Szabo
A large man in the ER screamed bloody murder, after two
nurses tried to insert an IV in his arm and failed. The guy
threatened to call his lawyer and sue the hospital. He called
the nurses incompetent fools, so, because I was the
supervisor on that shift, they called me to deal with the angry
man.
I walked into his room, introduced myself and told him,
“Sir, I’m going to try to start your IV.”
He yelled, “This hospital is full of *** idiots! I hope you
know what you’re doing!”
I put my nurse’s face on and said in my soothing nurse’s
voice to break his foul mood, “Don’t worry, sir, I just
watched a video on YouTube and learned how to start IVs.”
The surprised look on his face was priceless, and I heard
the nurses taking sharp breaths outside the door, ready for
another angry eruption.
“What? You’re kidding, right?”
I just smiled at him and started preparing the IV kit.
