Fake Emergency

“I’ve been having this chest pain just this morning,” a middle aged female inmate stated in between her sobs, as the LVN and I took her vital signs. She never had any problem in her heart known and nothing was in her medical chart. Except, I noticed she often came if not in the Clinic, through the morning sick calls in her unit, to see the nurse for many different complaints.

“Okay, Ma’am, I’m going to try to do an EKG…” I barely explained and she cut me off.

“No! There’s no way that you’re gonna’ do that thing! I had it a while back and it made me shake!” she yelled as her tears continued to flow.

“Ma’am, there was nothing wrong with the machine if you felt that way. Because it wasn’t supposed to hurt,” I explained.This time, we determined everything was normal with her vital signs.

“You have the right to refuse but if you do so, I couldn’t do anything but send you back to your unit, no matter what happens because EKG would be the only thing I can use now to determine if there’s anything going on in your heart.”

Seeing the deputy nearby, she got up and stepped toward the medical exam room I opened and where I had prepared the table and the EKG machine awaiting to be used. The LVN [who was African and I described her race because of what would ensue] who was always a nice lady and always helpful to staff, especially with me as we both worked nights together before and had gone through many busy shifts helping each other, continued to assist me.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, you need to remove your bra and your shirts so we can apply these sticky electrodes on the right spot!” I explained as I slightly closed the door and with just the LVN and I and her, gave her as much privacy I could.

She had a feat! She raised her hands up on the air and yelled, “Oh, what now? Am I supposed to go naked now? C’mon! I’m not in Africa!” she yelled. It was obvious to us, that she wasn’t having true chest pains for her to make it hard on the nursing staff from the beginning of her sick call. Demanding things she said she needed. Yet, she was refusing what we needed to do on our part. And I saw how offended my co-worker felt when she heard what she just uttered!

There’s just so much patience a person can have.

When I heard that as I was walking away, I made a u-turn and went back to the room and raised my voice.

“What did you just say?” I asked.

“Here we are going all through these troubles to help you out even though it’s obvious that you’re not having true medical emergencies. Yet, we try to respect you. And what did you just say?” I kept ranting.

“If we are respecting you, you must respect us, too!” I continued without pausing as she didn’t expect that and as she heard me say those things, she tried to be defensive with her tears and complaining again with chest pains. The Infirmary deputy heard me and she went inside. She heard how she was being a hard patient with us. She started yelling at her and told her to stop.

“Let me just finish the EKG deputy,” I stated. And it was normal. I signaled for the deputy to let her go. The deputy told her to get up and get dressed and she knew she could be in big trouble that I could put her on discipline, meaning limiting some of her privileges for faking her medical emergency. But I opted not to. I told the deputy she wasn’t the only one who manipulated the system to make it appear that they were having medical issues. They faked their conditions and used them to show the court that they were too sick that they might not be in the right state of mind to commit whatever crimes they did. Hoping that the judge would pardon them and perhaps, release them form the jail.

“All I need was a wheelchair!” I heard her tell the deputy.

“You don’t need it! You don’t need anything in fact! But you need to go to your unit and I’m going to call your deputy there so they know that all you did here was act up and cause troubles with the staff! If you do it again, you’ll be in big trouble,” she warned.

Don't we all at some point, try to manipulate God? Instead of following what He wants for us to do, we try to earn His love or favor by doing good deeds. Isn't that manipulation? There is nothing that we can do to make Him love us more or less. God can't be manipulated. He desires our true worship. He wants us to love Him with all of our hearts, all of our minds, all of our strength. We don't need to fake that we are doing well when we are truly broken inside and in need of a Savior. Freedom awaits to those who are willing to receive the sacrifice of a Savior. And obedience to God leads the way to that path toward freedom. We were His...Twice His!!!