ARC story from my work (medical)

richpalm · #1 11-19-2003, 09:41 PM

At least some members here know that I work in a medical detox as a counselor on night shift. (detoxification from heroin, alcohol, prescription meds, etc.)

Unfortunately it is a low percentage of patients that *really* want recovery; family pressure, go-to-detox-or-go-to-jail, dry out for a couple days and start all over again, etc. So despite our best searches of belongings they are going to get contraband in if they are bound and determined.

Enter the ARC. I come in at 11p and there is a young girl acting strange; nurses are sure that something is going on, that she is on something. Nurse in charge balks at searching the room for fear of waking up other patients. Of course my job is to not let anything go. Of course I can do it, I can do it in the dark with the ARC.

So I did. I am going through the drawers in the nightstand and my ARC LSH-P, modded with a McFlood with its beautiful, white, even pattern picks out the white pills in the drawer and more on a shelf. With the unique white color of the LS, the pills sprung out at me. They get confiscated and the girl is rushed to the ED to get charcoaled. She was OK.

The point is, if I'd been using the junker minim*g that I used to use prior to CPF, there is every chance I might have missed finding the contraband. So thanks to Peter's product *and* the McFlood, we avoided a potential disaster. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Rich

BlindedByTheLite · #2 11-19-2003, 11:08 PM

b-b-b-b-busted by Rich and Arc.

milkyspit · #3 11-20-2003, 01:28 AM

Whoa. This is kind of scary. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/faint.gif[/img]

Glad your little workhorse came to the rescue, Rich! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

richpalm · #4 11-20-2003, 03:22 AM

[ QUOTE ]
milkyspit said:
Whoa. This is kind of scary. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/faint.gif[/img]

Glad your little workhorse came to the rescue, Rich! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

All in a day's work, actually. Haven't had to pull the M3 yet. (blinding force) [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

georget98 · #5 11-20-2003, 07:18 AM

[ QUOTE ]
richpalm said:
Of course I can do it, I can do it in the dark with the ARC.

[/ QUOTE ]

That ought to be the foundation for a new ad campaign. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

JackBlades · #6 11-20-2003, 08:25 AM

Peole sneaking dope into rehab? How f*cked up is THAT?

Good job! If you find a Mini-M*g, turn it on to make sure it has batteries in it!

dtsoll · #7 11-20-2003, 11:18 AM

That is a great story!! I myself have been on the other end of your story, not using drugs or alcohol in rehab, but being in rehab for drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately, it took many years for me to actually get honest about the problem. I now have 5+ years in recovery and thank God for every day. I also thank God for people like richpalm and for places he works at, without them, I would be dead for sure. Arc and rehab, it's HOW it works, hehe!! Doug [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

pedalinbob · #8 11-20-2003, 03:45 PM

wow, interesting.

i happen to work in anesthesiology/ Acute pain service. i initiate, run and troubleshoot narcotic pumps and epidurals, often for post-op patients.

i have a great deal of knowlege of acute pain control, as well as a pretty good grasp of chronic pain treatments (i often convert pts to orals for discharge. some cases are very complex).

sometimes we run into the drug abuser--which usually starts out as a person with chronic pain. we have found meds stashed all over the room. security has to be summoned to search the area.
the situation is VERY dangerous, because they may be taking handfulls of oxycodone or vicodin along WITH a dilaudid PCA pump. yup, i have pushed a LOT of narcan.

funny. when they come out of their near-coma, they are usually most angry that i screwed up their buzz!!!! (if they dont end up intubated)

anyway, good catch!

Bob

flownosaj · #9 11-20-2003, 04:38 PM

Near the beginning, when you were talking about people hiding thier narcotics, I had a brief image if an Arc going where "no man has gone before" in search of it.... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smoker5.gif[/img]

Gaargh....why did that immediately jump to mind. Must learn to read first, think later.

pedalinbob--during my ER rotation I had a simialar narcan experience. We hit the guy with it, he sits bolt upright and is all wide-eyed. Later, when we explained what we did, he was all pissed off. Apparently we just wasted quite a bit of the money he had invested into that trip [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon6.gif[/img]

Oh yeah, Arc LSH-P's should be a medicare deductable item and included in the patient's bill. "Dispose of in proper container my but--and it's not going home with them either!"

-Jason

Lighthouse · #10 11-20-2003, 06:08 PM

richpalm,

Just an fyi observation...I obtained one of the AAA UV lights from the ARC auction via dpr. Of course, I've had to play oops [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif[/img] I mean test it everywhere.

Noticed that certain things fluoresce quite nicely, lint on clothes that you don't see at first but it jumps out with UV, this includes pills of varous sorts.

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif[/img]
Guessing that they include a bit of UV reactive dye in their coloring so that they look a nice bright white [whiter translates to cleaner or better I guess].

Found a couple of pills that had been accidently dropped on a white tile floor VERY quickly with the UV, hardly obvious at all in regular light. I would imagine that even some colored pills might stand out as well.

Fortunately, I neither have or need many pills so I can't really do much research on the subject. Perhaps one of the CPF medical members might have a UV that they could check out various pills with. Note, I think that most pill bottles are somewhat UV resistant, the pills that I mentioned above do not stand out when in their Rx bottle.

Another plus with the AAA UV is the small size the low coupled with the visible light output.

FWIW & YMMV

Lighthouse [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/popcorn.gif[/img]

richpalm · #11 11-21-2003, 02:14 PM

Oh, well... been looking for an excuse to get a UV... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif[/img]

Rich