Get Over Your Depression!
I cared for a sixty-one-year-old lady who was brought to the emergency department by her daughter and brother. They brought her down from the intensive care unit where her son who was on life support. She was hollering hysterically and was inconsolable. She wailed as she told me her story.
She said her son had suffered from depression for many years. She had grown tired of it and had become angry with him. They had argued earlier in the day. The argument ended with her hollering at him, “Get a hold of yourself and get over this depression!”
The son then went straight out to the back yard and hung himself on a tree. Some time later, she discovered him hanging there. She couldn’t get him down so ran off to find neighbors to help. By the time they cut him down and got the ambulance to bring him to the hospital, he was brain dead.
As she recounted the events to me, she moaned about wanting to turn the back the clock, how she was not there for him when he needed her and how she should be dead instead of him.
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Comments (4)
Rebecca Langston
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This story makes me very sad. A lot of times the one’s who live with the depressed person doesn’t understand what clinical depression is or what to do to help.
This mom will more than likely blame herself for her son hanging himself for the rest of her life. I hope she gets educated and realizes… it is not her fault at all.
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Karen
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What happened to doctor-patient confidentiality?
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Rodolfo
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Tad never revealed the patient’s name or other personal information, just the story. Thus, no HIPPA violation.
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Tad
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The entire time I have been blogging, I have been keenly aware of the importance of confidentiality in general and HIPAA in specific. I am always careful to include no information that would be specific to one patient, allowing him or her to be recognized. The few pictures I have shared were all taken with the permission of the patient and with no patient identifying information in them as well. This is very important to me.
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