So I have a crazy story from yesterday.
My first mistake was showing up to work. I couldn’t sleep. It was 11am, and I got a message from my work group chat begging for someone to come in. They offered $500. I figured I could either be cranky and tired in bed, or I could be cranky and tired while earning Christmas money. I worked that night anyways, so I offered to work a 16 hour shift. I showed up at 1.
The first couple of hours weren’t too bad. Night shift consistently deals with far worse with far fewer staff. This is how I made my next mistake- I told my workwife that day shift is totally full of shit, and how it wasn’t actually that busy.
Of course, about thirty minutes after that, the ambulance phones rang nonstop. Our lobby quickly turned into an EMS convention. Since I was running the low acuity rooms, I got the “easiest” patient who’s complaint was labeled as “injured wrist- possible psyche”.
I did the whole triage thing. What’s your name, do you know where you are, why did you call an ambulance, etc. I asked him how he hurt his wrist. He said that he injured it by trying to punch a hole in the ceiling. I asked him why he did that. He said it was because he thought someone was on the roof. He did inform the store owner (because this took place at a fucking chikfila) and request that someone at least check the roof for people, but the request was denied. Out of concern for whomever might be trapped on the roof, he climbed a pole and punched the ceiling.
This is about when the owner called the police, and the police called an ambulance. This is how he ended up in my hospital.
I did my psychiatric screening. He had a history of anxiety, but that was about it. At least per protocol, he had no reason to require an immediate psych workup other than the anxiety, which he was not currently experiencing, and I’m not one of those weird nurses that sees any form of psychiatric history and decides to make it everyone’s problem regardless of if the patient came to the ER for it or not. And he was calm, polite, relaxed, and rationalized his reasons for his odd decisions in a way that almost made sense. And I’ve met plenty of “normal” people who say and do much weirder stuff. This was someone that I could leave alone for a few minutes while I charted and waited for the doctor to see him and place orders. Right?
Wrong!
I heard banging sounds but thought nothing of it. It’s dayshift. They’re always making noise. I ignored it.
And then the doctor yelled, “CALL A CODE GRAY! HE’S IN THE CEILING!” which is a combination of words that will summon all of your coworkers to one place very, very quickly.
I’m not sure how he did it, since he’d entered through the one corner that wasn’t above a chair or counter or stretcher, but sometime between my evaluation and the doctor’s attempt at one, the man had broken into the ceiling, pulled himself up, and made a run for it.
The immediate concern was “where the hell did he go?” Luckily, our ceilings are flimsy as fuck, so we were able to guess his location based on the sounds of his scuttling down the hallway above us.
Unfortunately, our ceilings are flimsy as fuck, so our next concern was, “what if he falls through the ceiling?” What if he falls in a patients room? What if he falls on the patient? How do you fill out “fall” paperwork for that? How do you address that in court? Does anyone have experience with patients falling through ceilings or is this your first time too? Should someone call 911?
We were literally scrambling around trying to place ourselves under him in the event that he fell so we could minimize the damage. At this point, the psych team came in, and our most Disney Princess-esque nurse went into the ceiling to talk the man down. It didn’t quite work, but he was able to convince the patient that an angry mob wasn’t waiting for him now that he’d fully investigated the ER for attic dwellers. The patient came back down before we called the fire department. He was quickly admitted and placed on a watch to prevent further ceiling adventures. And no, we were not angry. Just confused, horrified, amused, and flabbergasted.
My patient remained calm and amicable for the rest of his time with us, and we are all due for “re education” on patients with possible psychiatric, or even just strange, complaints.
Experience rating: My patient was much nicer than most people I deal with. His response to the hallucinations was ill-advised and dangerous, but his motive was pure. The man heard footsteps in an unusual place, and he needed to make sure that whoever was up there was safe. Overall 8/10. This is the weirdest thing to ever happen to me at work, no one got hurt, and we are confirmed to not have people in our ceiling. I hope he encounters kindness and joy wherever he goes.


















