6/1/09: 60 days in the Hole…

“I am here to pick up my knee brace. They didn’t give me the brace at last visit.” Says the second patient I have seen for triage that morning.

Ok, so I’ll pull up the old chart, figure out what happened, and go from there. Nothing documented for the past several months for any sort of knee injury. Nothing about a knee brace for the Pt..

“Dr. ‘Doolittle’ said there should be a knee brace waiting for me.”

“There isn’t any visit for your knee documented in your chart. I can schedule you for another appointment to examine your knee and determine if we need to give you a knee brace at that point.”

“This system doesn’t do anything for you!” Followed by many more lively comments about “the system.”

“I can offer you two options: 1) schedule an appointment to look at your knee, or 2) you can leave without an appointment.”

“You don’t know anything. I demand to talk to Dr. ‘bail-me-out’” followed by many comments about “the system,” and now me as well.

“Dr. ‘bail-me-out’ said you have two options: 1) schedule an appointment to look at your knee, or 2) you can leave without an appointment.”

“F-you!” “you are a piece of sh**!” …and add your favorite string of expletives that raised in volume as the inmate walked through the waiting room full of other inmates.

Ten minutes later: “inmate ‘swear-too-much’ report to the closest staff member,” came for the compound wide intercom system.

60 days in segregation (or more): 1 hour of interaction with others and time outside of your cell. No phone calls, no prison store privileges, nothing but you, yourself, and concrete. If this is a repeat occurrence, it’s off to a higher level security prison for you.

Note to self: if I ever find myself in prison and want to curse out someone, don’t!!