Sometimes people become unhinged while cooped up in the hospital but there is no excuse for the erratic behavior this poor nurse endured from a crazy mom.
“Obligatory not a doctor but I worked in a pediatric ED for a bit. Once, at the start of my shift, a mother asked me if I could get a cup of water for her child. Since some patients are supposed to be NPO, I told her I would check with the doctor. Before I could say anything else, the mother screamed ‘You useless ginger floozy!’ And threw her purse at me. She had a terrible aim and her purse split open all over the floor at my feet. I just walked away when she told me to pick it up. She screamed at me one more time, and by now the rest of the unit was just silently staring at her.
Security was called, and she eventually had to be led out of the building with her kid because she was refusing to leave without her child receiving antibiotics. He was there for a cold, was told to go home and rest. I felt so bad for the kid. She spent the entire day refusing to leave and asking for different substances for her kid, ranging from penicillin to Percocet, and becoming more and more irate when she was told no. So asking for water and not being told ‘yes’ straight away set her off.
But I was known as the Ginger Floozy by my coworkers for the rest of the time I worked there so. Got a funny nickname I guess.”
