The patient had tried to commit suicide; at least tried to appear to have tried. She claimed to have taken a handful of several different types of drugs including some powerful opiates some time before we had been called. Her story didn’t add up, though; she was not as out of it as she would have been if her story was accurate.
Still, she claimed to be suicidal; the police reported that her husband had wrestled a pistol away from her earlier in the evening after she threatened to use it on herself.
We delivered her to the hospital. The nurse asked a few questions.
“You have some family here… Is there anyone that you don’t want to see?”
“My children… I don’t want them to see me like this.”
I was instantly irate. She tried to try to commit suicide but, now that she failed, doesn’t want her kids to see her in the hospital?
On the way out, I saw her family; two tearful teenagers and a tearful husband. I felt really sad for them.
I just don’t understand people.
It's Bxiie Q. with the 411 
April 30, 2009 at 14:41
She’s not thinking rationally for whatever reasons of mental illness. Don’t try to understand it or you’ll get angry, like you did at her reaction. Hope that she gets help and that her family don’t have to go through her actual death at her own hands. But don’t try to “get” it; you’ll drive yourself crazy.