Sassy's First Night in the ED

I spent a few hours last night sort of shadowing in the ED. I say sort of, because I pretty much wandered at will and followed whichever resident or attending didn't give me the stink eye into the rooms. They're pretty casual about students shadowing at Med School Hospital's ED. It was my maiden voyage in the ED (no one put big red V on my forehead with lipstick, sadly). I saw some really interesting stuff, some OKish stuff, and some "WTF are you doing in the ER for this shit?" stuff.

My favorite, though? A severely autistic patient who was sent in (and by "sent in", I really mean "dumped") by his home with some paperwork. On his chart was written:

"Chronic Illness:          Artistic         "

I'd love to see the DSM IV criteria for that.