He Just Needed A Space To Get Some Sleep
A man shuffles up to the triage window and asks to see a doctor. On the complaint form, he has written his chief complaint as “sleep”! We go through the process and get him to a room.

Once in the room, I ask him again what brings him to the Emergency Room and he confesses to his inability to sleep and a few other complaints.

As he reluctantly continues to answer our questions we ask him if he is homeless. He gives a post office box as his address and replied that if we want to classify him as homeless that is okay.

The reason he is asked about his living situation is so that we may be able to offer him resources to assist him and to understand how his living situation will affect his compliance to his course of treatment.

He mentioned that on the eve of Thanksgiving he walked from 03:00 pm until 7:00 am the next morning to get to this destination. He walked for 16 hours! Now he had the added complaint of foot pain along with insomnia.

Being diabetic he confessed to being non-compliant with his diabetic medication, Metformin, as it causes him to have frequent bowel movements and he cannot have that because a bathroom is not always available to him.

That is truly tragic!

As a result of the added walking, his diabetic neuropathy is causing him considerable pain. With compassion in our hearts, we let this gentleman sleep another four hours or so after his treatment concluded but eventually had to discharge him for several reasons.
['Pene Hodge']
['Self Improvement', 'Homeless', 'Hope', 'Mental Health', 'Community']