Notebook Recollections

I heard loud noises coming from the Clinic lab. Furniture tipping over, glass shattering. People shouting and crying. Dr. Ravi and I ran down the hall to the Lab waiting room.

A large print of Monet’s “Lily Pads” hung crazily from the wall. Triangles of glass stuck straight out from the frame. A wild looking young male patient hoisted a chair and flung into a corner. Then he bent over and started sailing glass shards into the Lab where 3 techs were crouched behind the counter. The remaining patients scattered out of the area.

We didn’t recognize the fellow.

Ravi talked, calm and quiet. He asked the guy to sit down a sec.

He sat down.

We sat down on either side of him. He rubbed an index card sized piece of glass back and forth against his neck. He laughed. He yelled.

Ravi and I put a hand on each of his arms. He seemed to calm down. I motioned for the Lab people to ease away.

Dr. Brian rounded a corner, stopping suddenly when she saw us.

The guy jumped up, and sidearmed his shard of glass at her as hard as he could.

Missing her face, it smashed on the wall behind her.

Dr. Brian froze in place. Ravi and I stood up alongside the troubled young man. He gave Dr. Brian a desperate stare. He took fast, heaving breaths. As Dr. Brian started to back away, he suddenly lunged at her. I tackled low, Ravi tackled high. The guy spat, and snapped and flailed about. We finally were able to calm him down.

Dr. Brian called 911 from a wall phone, but help was already on the way. Four paramedics charged into the Lab area from one entrance while three police entered from the opposite door. Dr. Brian gave a quick update to the police.

The paramedics helped him up and onto a stretcher. The scene changed to one of quiet and calm as they removed the young man from the building enroute to the Hospital Emergency Room.

After a few minutes to absorb all that had just occurred, Ravi said “Well, that wasn’t exactly your ideal doctor-patient encounter.”

In the midst of all this, pizza that the staff had ordered earlier for lunch had arrived. The pizza delivery guy threaded through a paramedic van and two cop cars and an unmarked squad. Our local , all-star cab driver, Tex , had also surveyed the scene.

Commenting on all the commotion that he had just observed, he wryly asked a nurse, “What kind of pizza was it?”