Man Wrangled into Hospital Against Will

This is the story told by my mother, Dottie, who was in nursing school in the 1950s in southern Ohio at the time of this incident.

Dottie begins the story by providing some background information. "While in nursing school, we worked at the hospital as part of our training. As trainees, we simply did as we were told, and left the decisions up to the doctors and managers in the hospital. An elderly man who looked feeble and slightly bent over, was out walking for a little exercise. We later learned that his name was Fred. Fred happened to be passing by our hospital and apparently took a few steps toward the emergency room double doors. A well-meaning emergency room attendant dashed out to assist the elderly man, who was unable to speak above an unclear mumble. "

"The hospital's emergency room attendant quickly escorted Fred into the hospital. You need to understand," explains Dottie, "that this was a large, inner-city, major metropolitan hospital, tending to the largest number of emergencies of any hospital within a 300 mile radius. We were short-staffed that particular day, and none of us had even one second to spare as we dashed from emergency to emergency, attempting to save the most critical patients first. Overflow emergency-room patients waited in gurneys that lined the hall."

"While Fred was being fitted into a hospital gown, he mumbled something, but the personnel dressing him had no time to sit down and listen to what he was trying to say. His clothing was placed into a labeled bag, then onto a cart which was hurried onto the laundry truck and taken to another building for laundering."

"Like the others waiting to see a doctor, Fred was placed onto a gurney while still mumbling-attempting to convey some kind of message. Apparently the managing nurse or doctor had decided that Fred should not remain on the gurney too long due to his frail appearance, so Fred was assigned to a hospital room, and mumbled further while being rushed into his new room and carefully placed onto the bed."

"Every time a nurse, doctor, or other worker passed by the doorway to Fred's room, he could be seen laying there mumbling, occasionally making a gesture with his hand."

"Two hours later, a doctor finally appeared in the doorway with Fred's medical chart. As the doctor approached the bed, Fred mumbled. In order to hear the patient more clearly, the doctor pulled up a chair as closely to the bed as possible and leaned his ear close to the patient's face."

"The doctor then asked Fred, 'Tell me sir, what brings you to the hospital? What is your health issue? How can we help you?' Still mumbling, Fred relayed the message to the doctor that he had been trying to articulate for hours, 'I need to use the men's room.'"

"The doctor replied, 'OK, we can handle that. But is there anything else we can do for you?' Fred answered, 'No.' Bewildered, the doctor asked, 'Is that the only reason you are here?' to which Fred answered in a near whisper, 'Yes.' "

"The rest is history, "says Dottie. "We had to call the man's family and explain to them what happened so that they could come and pick him up. We laughed about this until the day we graduated.