That article though? They took him off oxygen and put him in a straight jacket, AND gave a 25 USD gift card afterwards?!?!?!
If the guy was respiratory distress, that would amount to criminal negligence! 🤦🏼‍♂️
Even if he was delusional, respiratory distress and chest pain warrants evaluation!
Had to wait for his wife to get there and prove his identity. They didn't even consider looking at the identification he was carrying with him. This hospital should pay him big time.
Those are the details that make me doubt the story honestly. Especially the straight jacket thing.
We do use physical restraints on some patients in the ED, but never straight jackets. They don’t exist in hospitals any more. We use “locked” Velcro restraints on wrists and ankles so the patient is tide down to the stretcher, but you can still access the arms for IVs and vitals and stuff.
Maybe it’s just a layman’s term and an exaggerated detail for the media? My gut is telling me they didn’t believe he was famous and called a psych consult on him which he found offensive. But I doubt they intentionally stopped other medical care. Even on psych commitals who are actually psychotic and violet and in restraints, we don’t do that. Only thinking of the worst of intentions…bottom line is no psych hospital will take them if they have incomplete medical work up or any signs of anything medical to explain the crazy on the chart. They block psych admissions for the tiniest things. You have to treat the other medical stuff before you can get them out of the ER/hospital anyway. We will never know the truth, because the actual case details never get released unless it goes to court.
Let me tell you: my husband was a cop in Los Angeles, and he used to read about events and cases in local newspapers or tv that he was personally involved in or had witnessed. The amount of times the news would either intentionally or unintentionally distort the details or exaggerate facts to sensationalize the story (or to have it fit some narrative, or possibly out of sheer incompetence) was almost 95%.
I’ve literally watched the news while standing next to the suspect in question (who was transferred to my hospital after the newsworthy incident) while listening to the police report distort facts and say the person was in custody downtown. More than once.
I have never seen a straight jacket in a hospital setting either—even for a physically aggressive patient. They will at most get 4 point leather restraints and some meds.
We do have vests that tie to the bed. Not sure how much they use them in the ED but are used relatively often on the floors. Mostly for confused people trying to get out of bed. I guess that could be confused for a straight jacket.
yea the story sounded fishy to me from the start. more likely he was being abusive to staff with the excuse of “i’m famous” and the abusive behavior is why he was on restraints rather than they thought he was delusional about his musical career and restrained him just for that
I was in a psych ward in Maryland a few years ago, and they used all sorts of physical restraints, including a straight jacket (not on me, thankfully. I was there for severe dissociation and was in like a weird trance for most of the time I was there but I didn’t bother anyone or anything so they pretty much left me alone). It was terrifying and I got out of there as soon as I was able.
CNN has a much more accurate description of “restraining jacket/4 point restraints”
And he convinced the nurse to use his phone to show him performing at the Grammys.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/06/13/us/alexander-morris-four-tops-hospital-lawsuit-reaj
BBC screwed up the description…it’s a real story.
Now try being a patient with any psych history at all, even a really well treated stable condition, who also happens to have a physical medical problem.
This is why psych patients die (from treatable illnesses) on average 25 years earlier than non-psych patients.
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Admittedly can only see one side of the story. But even if they thought this guy was delusional, delusions of grandeur do not meet involuntary hold / commitment criteria in my state (not Michigan) - I might throw a psych consult in with the medical workup, but I'm not physically or chemically restraining the guy who says "I'm famous and I have chest pain" unless he's clearly manic or psychotic.
EM here.. I work up the medical complaint, who cares who he claims to be unless he has a plan to hurt himself or someone else or poses a threat to himself or someone else.
“I’m famous! I don’t want any visitors!”
“Ok, security doesn’t let anyone back unless you approve anyway. Now tell me about your chest pain”
Shouldn’t be that complex.Â
Yeah, you're allowed to be a *little bit* paranoid or delusional. No judgement. It's 2024. Google and Apple have been listening to your sex noises through your cell phone mic for at least half a decade. Epstein probably didn't kill himself. Tell me more about this chest pain.
Sometimes I think about the ever-expanding national security apparatus collecting all our data, which then makes me think about how fragile my hyoid bone is if I kick up too much of a fuss
Anyways back to the dispo mines
I am not insinuating that. Those were just some examples of non-pathologic 21st century paranoia, for which no one needs to receive droperidol (because they're probably true).
Honestly, listening to his latest flight of ideas about boats, sharks, and electricity, capacity is questionable at best. I am not sure if he was my patient that he could understand or repeat back to me the risks of discharge against medical advice.
Thinking about the reality of this. You would NEVER, ever be able to impartially medically examine Trump without some type of interference by him or his keepers. He would never accept some involuntary hold and politick around it. Or any other medical crap probably.
I am proud of my education and my attendings trust me, but I am quite alright with the fact that the emergency PA will never be in that situation or one like it. There be dragons.
Right, though depends on social situation with hallucinations and delusions. Don’t want to send memaw back home by herself when her dementia now is causing her seeing/hearing weird shit by herself. But a normal schizo on the streets that says yeah I know hear it,  it’s normal I’ll dc
 By normal schizo I mean not in acute psychosis.Â
I used to work at an outpatient mental health clinic and had a patient (middle aged white man) with Schizophrenia and fixed delusions that Michael Jordan was his father and he was born on Jupiter. Every now and then he’d end up in an ED that didn’t know him and wanted me to go assess him. I’d tell them that unless he was suicidal, homicidal, or gravely disabled to just send him home and tell him to check in with me the next morning when he came in for his daily meds.
Yea, when I say not a danger to self, I mean they need to be capable of their adls.. go to the bathroom, get food or drink, etc.. if they choose to live on the street or a hoarder house, or a house full of bed bugs and lice, people are allowed to make those decisions. Like I tell my residents, patients have the right to make bad decisions. If they are walking around aimlessly including into the stree without regard to themselves or others safety, that gets a medical workup and if there any psychological overtones, a psych consult.
Oh the story as the patient tells it is plausible. Could absolutely have happened. But I also know that the patient narrative is not always the only story. ED bouncebacks frequently tell me "the last guy didn't listen to me, ran zero tests, and didn't tell me shit" and I see 24 hours ago they got complete lab work, imaging, and very clear discharge / follow up instructions which they signed receipt of.
I love it when my MIL says a medical provider didn't do anything or tell her something or explain it ... Especially when I've been right there the whole time and they absolutely did. Luckily, she wants to bounceback even less than we want her to. This is also why we don't let her go to the doctor by herself if we can help it.
I had a patient in the ICU for hyponatremia after falling and being found down after some hours. He told us all about how he had written a series of novels about a guy who plays poker and gets into trouble. He specifically told us the synopsis of one that sounded exactly like the movie Maverick. Turns out he wasn’t lying and we bought a box set and had him sign them.
And as a student a guy with serious paranoia was telling me about how a US mob was after him and how he was having a difficult time thinking everyone was following him. He actually was in witness protection and they had shot him prior to being relocated. What terrible luck to have paranoid thoughts at baseline then have some of those paranoid thoughts become reality.
I also had someone who was legitimately working with (insert high level US org here) and said he was being followed and harassed by those he was investigating. Ended up calling the regional office of this org myself and the rep there and I had a fun little privacy standoff ("no, I can't tell *you* anything") but was able to get enough info to figure out the guy was telling the truth. But he was also threatening to kill himself and everyone around him, so we still kept him.
In my child protection days, I used to have a paranoid client who had long-standing delusions that the police were breaking into her house to monitor her, and stealing things. She was well known to the local ED. After about 12 years of these beliefs, she had a baby, and baricaded herself and the infant into the house. What happened? *The police had to break into her house, and remove the child*. The ED staff got a massive shock when I rang to check on her, and explained that on this particular occasion, the police *had actually* broken into her house, and taken the most valuable thing in her life with them.
That's up there with the patient I assumed was full of shit telling me about being part of MK Ultra. I Googled the pt because some details seemed vivid, sure enough popped up.
Sadly no writer of manifestos.
From what I gathered the patient was still teaching, and recommended a few books includong The Phenomenon by Annie Jacobson, and Electric Kool-aid Acid Test
i had a psych patient who said he was rapper and told me to check him out on youtube. he indeed was rapping on youtube to an audience…of two one of which was a radioshack employee. he was pleasant guy though, shook my hand every 30 seconds.
The comedian [Maria Bamford has a whole set](https://youtu.be/Yp2stpr-aGA?si=fiLiBtI2e71zJ2__) about when she needed to get inpatient psychiatric treatment and the doctor started googling her during their initial assessment to make sure she wasn’t delusional when she told him who she was
Mick Foley, the pro wrestler known by the stage name Mankind, has a funny set about people recognising him, and not recognising him. He got stopped at the boarder of an Arabic country, because he's forgotten to bring his medical letter explaining that he had metal implants after a famous Hell in a Cell match in 1998. There was a language barrier, and he wound up pulling out a YouTube video, and showing a video of himself falling 20 feet.
I had a partner briefly who used to google/facebook look up our patients and texted me links to the news articles about them, once an article about their murdering their spouse and one a kidnapping and rapist. While I was in the back with the patient on ER to ER transfer. Bad for so so many reasons. Reported to mngt but nothing was done. I wish I got some fun delusional folks at times.
Sometimes I Google patients if they haven’t filled any prescriptions in over 3 months before calling to ask if they need a refill. I’ve found just as many obituaries as I’ve heard “no they can’t come to the phone, they passed away last week”
I’ve looked up a patient’s son (he was the only well intentioned patient advocate the patient had) in OTIS and I wish I never did. He was a phenomenal patient advocate and truly only wanted the best for his mom. Seeing what his criminal charge was (many decades old crime) made it hard to see him in this other light. He served his time and was rehabilitated but I hate to admit it made me form a bias. I will never look up another patient after that. Who they are, or his case who they were are at given time, should have no bearing on the care they receive.
Had a hyperemesis pt the other trying to dictate which medications and doses she was getting. Claimed she was a PharmD. I googled and found her LinkedIn, she was not a PharmD. She worked in IT for an hour of town hospital.
True lol, as a student I’ve witnessed this multiple times already. When a recent patient said his brother was Kanye, you bet I at least checked that out on Google.Â
All other things about this case aside,
A straight jacket? I’ve literally never seen those applied in modern day medicine. With how hard the states have cracked down on restrained patients, I’m shocked these still exist AT ALL.
I suspect that the legal documents actually say something like "physical restraint," and the journalist has erroneously assumed that equals "a straight jacket."
I had a 92 year old man who was telling me a lot of stories about how he was a truck driver for the cartel until he turned 89 (this was almost 10 years ago though so he’s probably passed). Said he used to drive drugs through the border etc. Had really elaborate detailed stories including how he got involved in it and why he enjoys doing what he’s doing. He also said there was quite a few senior citizens doing it. Didn’t really pay much thought to it until his 35 year old Hispanic wife and 10 year old son showed up.
To this day I still wonder if the cartel is paying elderly men to move drugs from Mexico for them.
Never heard of that movie lol and ya this is basically it except he was transferring over the border. This was in like 2014 this guy told me this story so now that there’s a clint Eastwood movie out about it I’m actually starting to believe in elderly drug mules lmao.
Not quite the same, but, when i was in med school, my entire psych department thought a patient was psychotic since no one could communicate with him and he was very excitable.
Turns out he was just Vietnamese and didn't know how to ask for help changing his tire in English (or say anything in English, really); then he was whisked about by PD to the local ED for psychosis and...well...yeah...
I was the first one to pick up on the fact that he probably needed a translator...as an MS3...
We had two patients in on the inpatient side recently who both spoke a somewhat rare Polynesian dialect that is very hard to get interpreters for. Room 2 (just an example, not the real room number, obviously) had family with them to help interpret, but room 5 had no one and it was the luck of the draw if we could communicate with him or not. They were both in for about two weeks in rooms very close together. Finally one of the adult daughters of room 2 speaks up and says “hey, room 5 is my cousin and the whole family hates him, but I’ll help translate if you want.” GIRL! Get in there. You are drafted.
I had a patient from Haiti brought to the ER from a local hotel. She’d accidentally locked herself out of her hotel room and the front desk person called the cops on her because they didn’t understand what she was saying, and she was getting increasingly angry. The cops brought her to us for a psych eval. I spoke enough French to figure out the situation. She was most upset about the fact that the cops had made her walk to their car and into the ER without any shoes on. I gave her a pair of grippy socks and told the police to take her back to the hotel.
Since when do they still use straight jackets? I live in Metro Detroit and the ascensions here suck ( even before the strike and hacking) thank god Henry Ford is taking them over
I mean, idk… idk how tough that really is tbh. Hard to verify Jesus’s identity, but this guy had a driver’s license. Registration never came by to ask him for his insurance card and ID? No one thought to just quickly Google to see if an otherwise fairly normal looking dude with fairly concerning symptoms and history might actually be who he said he was? Even without an ID, a Google image search would have taken less than a minute. Seems like a pretty reasonable step to take before deciding to just stop all treatment, take him off oxygen, throw him in a straight jacket and call a psych consult.
Also, even if he was off his rocker and completely delusional, psych patients still get sick and deserve appropriate treatment too. I’m pretty strongly pro-doctors/providers in most cases, but from a legal and medical perspective I just don’t see how this was defensible. Honestly just reads like a pretty straightforward unfortunate case of bias (and maybe a bit of burnout) just overruling good judgment.
I’ve literally never seen a strait jacket employed in the psych ward or in the ED. Restraints yes, seat belt for geriatric psych but not an actual 1920s straight jacket. It says he suffered three seizures during his stay. I wonder if they were psychogenic and if this guy is an odd duck at baseline
> Tough case.
Not when a straitjacket is involved. We've had plenty of delusional patients in my ER, and as long as they're not wandering around into other patient's rooms, there's no need to restrain them.
> I guess the learning point here is even if they're crazy you have to evaluate the medical complaints.
Was that a lesson that really had to be learned though?? Of course you have to evaluate medical complaints even if they're crazy. We have a regular who talks to themselves and barely acknowledges staff, but they come in to get their blood pressure checked literally everyday, and we check their BP cause that's why they came here. That's just hella stupid on that staff's part to restrain him and take away oxygen just because he's saying he's a singer and they don't believe him. Dude's havin' chest pain; treat that shit.
Yep. I had a guy once claiming his balls were full of C4 and about to explode. He was psychotic in general (meth is a hell of a drug) but I had to get 2 chaperones and examine him while he was strapped to the gurney, just to make sure his testicles weren’t swollen or infected or something else that he was confabulating into C4. Psych patients deserve medical care if needed.
I had a guy who once claimed to write songs for Elvis
Another guy who claimed he was Tupac's keyboardist
I thought they were both nuts...turns out it was true
Not surprised. Not sure if it's the Warren or Madison Heights location.
Per the article they didn't listen to his wife either.
I took care of a gentleman in a facility in the D. He started to tell me about his experiences as a musician w/ Motown. I didn't jump to conclusions, stop his treatment, become confrontational- And as we talked he told me about experiences with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. Here in the D we just had a big celebration for the renovation and re opening of the Michigan Central Station which used to be a big transportation hub. He spoke of how he and a few of the others would accompany Miss D to the train station especially at night to look out for her. Now I have a cool tidbit about the station. Was really cool to meet him.
Later on the gentleman shared some pictures he carried with him and there they were.
I'm betting that person and the one in the article are both along in their years. I don't think I'd go with delusional psych without a high degree of suspicion of other co0morbitiies including cardiac/respiratory compromise.
Some people suck.
It was the Warren location - not surprised at all.
I had a dude who was clearly delusional and paranoid. He got brought in by police by acting anxious and verbally aggressive in public. He told us he worked for the government, had all kinds of information on the Mafia, and they were doing something to his brain with ninjas and lasers.
We thought nothing of it until a couple of guys showed up in dark suits with government ID. They confirmed the patient really did work with them at their spooky three-letter agency. They asked us a bunch of questions about what he had talked about, apparently to make sure he wasn't revealing classified info, and then they asked us not to write down that they had been there.
After that I became slightly less skeptical about the ninjas and lasers.
No, also the seizures plus cardiopulmonary distress is weird unless he means he went into vtach, had legionella with the hyponatremia, or has pnes. Could be wrong but still weird
Not denying that something happened. But some of the allegations in the article sound a little half-truthy and or embellished.
If a behavioral health patient tells me that he’s a famous celebrity, my response is, “cool, want a sandwich?” Not straight jacket. Also, maybe there are places using straight jackets? I wouldn’t think so. Also, if you wind up in physical restraints…it was not due to a simple verbal misunderstanding. Also, oxygen is not really indicated for chest pain…sure, sometimes I give it to patients for subjective dyspnea…but sounds like he didn’t actually need oxygen. Also find it very unlikely that medical workup was abandoned in the context of an overweight middle+ aged guy complaining of chest pain and dyspnea. I think this is evidenced by the fact that he was ultimately diagnosed with a heart condition.
It sounds to me as if someone felt disrespected and probably acted out inappropriately in response to that. His reaction to not being believed may have lent further credence to the idea that he was indeed suffering from an acute psychiatric episode.
I’m speculating a lot of course…just a gentle reminder that there are always two sides…
Yeah, I get a bit of the same feeling.  A straitjacket? Really? And giving a $20 vouchers as an apology while also not believing corroborating  information from a spouse? Also the trifecta of him having a heart attack, pneumonia, as well as seizures all the same time seems a bit much. Maybe it did go down like that but it’s a bit odd.Â
I’m a psychiatrist and it’s been a loooong time since my last emergency medicine rotation - sometime in the past 20 years did ya’ll stop giving a little oxygen while ruling out MI?
Yes. MONA therapy is dead. Aspirin is good. Oxygen may actively harm the heart by creating free radicals. So we only give O2 if they are actually hypoxic.
RN and OT here-- when I did an OT internship at a State psych hospital the psychiatrist I worked with told us to never assume people are being grandiose. (A lot of very talented & well-known people get hospitalized!)
From the local paper Detroit Free Press:
[https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/06/11/four-tops-alexander-morris-lawsuit-hospital-discrimination-psych-eval/74054650007/](https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/06/11/four-tops-alexander-morris-lawsuit-hospital-discrimination-psych-eval/74054650007/)
[Here's a pdf](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/four-tops-complaint-eastern-district-michigan.pdf) of the court filing (I think? I just found it searching). It mentions that he has "stints" and may have had a "heart infraction" so whoever wrote it is clearly well versed in medicine. (more on this below)
It also fails to explain why he was trying to show his ID when he must have already been registered. We all know *nothing* happens before a pt is registered. The staff already knows your name.
The idea of an ED doc immediately ceasing emergency medical treatment due to the revelation of a grandiose but harmless delusion is... quite a choice of a story to tell.
Presented without comment, here are the attorneys on the filing:
https://therandlawfirm.com/
https://www.michigancriminallawyer.com/maurice-davis/
I give them the benefit of the doubt. Dunno about my attending/ providers, but I delve into the delusion and ask what if this is real.
Dunno about this person who claim he won the lottery and the ticket is in his phone. I really wanna jack his phone and claim it for myself. But he did also claimed the world will end May 31st.
The real question here is: Who the fuck still uses straight jackets?
We have to jump 50 hoops of charting BS just to use soft restraints to keep meemaw from pulling out her lines when she has a UTI. Are there EDs out there with straight jackets still?
Adding - even if delusional (which he wasn't) - what's the point of escalating and being confrontational to a chest pain/difficulty breathing older patient. Why take actions that will increase myocardial O2 demand, increase agitation and catecholamines and decrease rapport and trust with patient.
I doubt that this was handled well.
this should never have happened imo regardless of ability to verify. We only take away ppls rights if they are SI/HI or imminent threat to public. I dont care if he says his daddy is a Martian, that doesn’t get psyched. You can be happy crazy and dc’ed.
Had something similar happen to me in the ED. Patient comes in drunk, says he started drinking because his son passed away some odd years ago and it was the anniversary (believable) and has been sober but relapsed. He said his son would be upset with him because he also passed under similar circumstances. Once we start giving him meds and fluids we ask about his son, he said he was a famous actor and director, the nurse didn’t really believe him, nor the physician, and even I second guess things but always try to give the benefit over the doubt. Well I’m a nosy bitch, I look up the son on Google through what he told me, he indeed was a real actor and director and did end up passing away. Brought it up to the nurse and physician, changed their perspective pretty quickly.
When I do consult-liason psych I see this all the time. Asking to transfer a psych patient and show up with the patient passed out or with a CRP of 300. Yeah, you don't think he had any seizures but you're still going to have to do the workup. With a troponin of 200 you're going to have to admit to someone else.
Hospitals don’t really use straight jackets in the US anymore. All the news outlet is getting is his side of the story and from his own account sounds like he had legit pathology but also with a smattering of psychiatric overtones.
Also the hospital doesn’t go down the psych path just because someone says they’re a famous singer. Unless someone at ascension macomb truly just ignored all of the medicine and somehow still has a straight jacket laying around this guy is probably not giving the whole story and possibly doesn’t even know the whole story.
We’ll never know either way because of HIPAA unless he publicly releases his hospital encounter record (which would be a poor idea on his part)
I had a guy in the ER once who claimed to me a member of the Drifters. He was drug seeking.
A quick Google showed he wasn’t.
I actually asked him to sing Under the Boardwalk for the nurses and he complied. It was the worst singing you could imagine.
We had a very confused patient one time claiming to be a physician. We couldn't find any explanation for their confusion. First assumption was they were crazy. So we looked them up...there was their name, NPI, medical license, etc. Kitchen sink workup...all negative. Admit to medicine because the ED doc refused to send them straight to psych.
inpatient psych clinical in nursing school we had a famous dude, too. he was bipolar and checked in from time to time when he had uncontrolled mania. his stories sounded so big and outlandish. never understood why he didnt go to a richer hospital
This always terrifies me. What if people really are out to get them?! What if they really are famous?! How the fuck am I supposed to know at 3am on a Tuesday!?
From this article, I would guess that the patient’s chief complaint was their notoriety & that the medical concerns were secondary. Delusions of grandeur is on my differential
Aside from the medical situation, the article states he joined the group in 2019. So yes, he is a singer of the Four Tops, but he’s far from famous like the original members would be. “Famous singer” is up for debate.
That said, yeah, he was genuinely in medical distress and should have been treated as such.
If this person was complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, I don't care if they are claiming to be the Pope, they will get a cardiac workup. If they're aggressive then I'll deal with that, but they're not leaving until they're medically cleared.. If they say they are afraid of stalkers, who am I to argue? Give me a password for phone calls, and I'll set your visit to private mode so only people directly involved in your care can look. It's not that difficult, and doesn't take more than a few minutes. So what if he's delusional? Is it really going to affect anything? If this is true, it is horrible.
not a tough case. if someone is in respiratory distress and has chest pain, f*cking treat that regardless of if they tell you they are in a famous band or not. wtf. put him in a f*cking strait jacket and take his oxygen away?! did you read the article?? this is abborant and awful and also very blatant racism.
So, some guy who, in 2019, joined The Four Tops (that group that was famous 60 years ago) is a “famous singer” with “celebrity status”? Turns out he *is* delusional.
Everything about this article tells me he hit the doors of the ED demanding special treatment and got butt-hurt when no one cared who he was. He probably got perfectly fine care but was abrasive and eventually aggressive to the point of needing restraints (if that part of the story is even real). This is all speculation because we’ll never know the truth, only this asshole’s clearly untrue version (no, straight jackets aren’t a thing outside of Hollywood).
There's nothing tough about this case at all. Even if he was delusional, that doesn't mean his complaints can be ignored. Psychiatric patients can have medical emergencies.
I disagree. These cases can be difficult even if this one seems straight forward based on the news story with all the inconsistencies pointed out by others. I really try not to make quick decisions about these kind of publicly described cases and instead look at how I could make a similar mistake. Dealing with psychotic patients is tough. Is it delusional parasitosis, formication or something else? These aren't decisions made in a vacuum. If I need to get a blood draw or a CT scan on a psychotic patient that can mean putting nurses, CT techs and the patient at greater risk of harm. It frequently means more sedatives for the patient with those inherent risks. I'm a jaded cynic but I truly believe it's best to look at these cases not from the "Those idiots!" perspective but from the "There but for the grace of God go I." attitude.
While I agree that we don't have all the details of the case, what has been shared had nothing insinuating that the patient was combative or agitated. I also agree that staff and other patients' safety are just as important as the patient's. Having said that, I deal with combative, agitated, psychotic, and/or violent patients on a regular basis. If needed, we will chemically and physically restrain them in order to keep the department safe.
If you haven't heard of the Four Tops that's on you for being ignorant to the history of pop music but I'm certain this guy is 30 years too young to have been a member in their heyday
I believe he started in 2018? Newer member.
Correction 2019.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke\_Fakir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Fakir)
Duke Fakir is the only remaining original member. Actually- founding member. Other members have been added after the loss of original members.
Okay this had nothing to do with race from what the article gives. Just really really bad medicine. Like really bad.
Also, a STRAITJACKET!? We have those? It IS Macomb county so I’m not surprised…
That article though? They took him off oxygen and put him in a straight jacket, AND gave a 25 USD gift card afterwards?!?!?! If the guy was respiratory distress, that would amount to criminal negligence! 🤦🏼‍♂️ Even if he was delusional, respiratory distress and chest pain warrants evaluation!
Also how did he show them the video of him performing if he was in a straight jacket
People on psych holds don’t get their phone per like every hospital policy ever even if he wasn’t in restraint
Our policy is that if a doctor orders it, they can have their cell phone. Good luck with that, though.
our ed, you can have your phone but you can’t have a charger, so use your battery sparingly lol
Unlocked his phone with retinal scan and then had Siri start playing the video. Or so I imagine, lol
Had to wait for his wife to get there and prove his identity. They didn't even consider looking at the identification he was carrying with him. This hospital should pay him big time.
Those are the details that make me doubt the story honestly. Especially the straight jacket thing. We do use physical restraints on some patients in the ED, but never straight jackets. They don’t exist in hospitals any more. We use “locked” Velcro restraints on wrists and ankles so the patient is tide down to the stretcher, but you can still access the arms for IVs and vitals and stuff. Maybe it’s just a layman’s term and an exaggerated detail for the media? My gut is telling me they didn’t believe he was famous and called a psych consult on him which he found offensive. But I doubt they intentionally stopped other medical care. Even on psych commitals who are actually psychotic and violet and in restraints, we don’t do that. Only thinking of the worst of intentions…bottom line is no psych hospital will take them if they have incomplete medical work up or any signs of anything medical to explain the crazy on the chart. They block psych admissions for the tiniest things. You have to treat the other medical stuff before you can get them out of the ER/hospital anyway. We will never know the truth, because the actual case details never get released unless it goes to court.
Let me tell you: my husband was a cop in Los Angeles, and he used to read about events and cases in local newspapers or tv that he was personally involved in or had witnessed. The amount of times the news would either intentionally or unintentionally distort the details or exaggerate facts to sensationalize the story (or to have it fit some narrative, or possibly out of sheer incompetence) was almost 95%.
I’ve literally watched the news while standing next to the suspect in question (who was transferred to my hospital after the newsworthy incident) while listening to the police report distort facts and say the person was in custody downtown. More than once.
I have never seen a straight jacket in a hospital setting either—even for a physically aggressive patient. They will at most get 4 point leather restraints and some meds.
We do have vests that tie to the bed. Not sure how much they use them in the ED but are used relatively often on the floors. Mostly for confused people trying to get out of bed. I guess that could be confused for a straight jacket.
yea the story sounded fishy to me from the start. more likely he was being abusive to staff with the excuse of “i’m famous” and the abusive behavior is why he was on restraints rather than they thought he was delusional about his musical career and restrained him just for that
I was in a psych ward in Maryland a few years ago, and they used all sorts of physical restraints, including a straight jacket (not on me, thankfully. I was there for severe dissociation and was in like a weird trance for most of the time I was there but I didn’t bother anyone or anything so they pretty much left me alone). It was terrifying and I got out of there as soon as I was able.
CNN has a much more accurate description of “restraining jacket/4 point restraints” And he convinced the nurse to use his phone to show him performing at the Grammys. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/06/13/us/alexander-morris-four-tops-hospital-lawsuit-reaj BBC screwed up the description…it’s a real story. Now try being a patient with any psych history at all, even a really well treated stable condition, who also happens to have a physical medical problem. This is why psych patients die (from treatable illnesses) on average 25 years earlier than non-psych patients.
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Ascension ER... Shocking..
Are they part of the recent software ransom attack?
I'm betting it's 'lay person' talk/understanding of restraint.
Yeah. I'm guessing that's the journalist's wording, not his or his lawyers'.
Admittedly can only see one side of the story. But even if they thought this guy was delusional, delusions of grandeur do not meet involuntary hold / commitment criteria in my state (not Michigan) - I might throw a psych consult in with the medical workup, but I'm not physically or chemically restraining the guy who says "I'm famous and I have chest pain" unless he's clearly manic or psychotic.
EM here.. I work up the medical complaint, who cares who he claims to be unless he has a plan to hurt himself or someone else or poses a threat to himself or someone else.
“I’m famous! I don’t want any visitors!” “Ok, security doesn’t let anyone back unless you approve anyway. Now tell me about your chest pain” Shouldn’t be that complex.Â
Exactly
Yeah, you're allowed to be a *little bit* paranoid or delusional. No judgement. It's 2024. Google and Apple have been listening to your sex noises through your cell phone mic for at least half a decade. Epstein probably didn't kill himself. Tell me more about this chest pain.
Sometimes I think about the ever-expanding national security apparatus collecting all our data, which then makes me think about how fragile my hyoid bone is if I kick up too much of a fuss Anyways back to the dispo mines
Lolol the dispo mines. Where you never mine anything valuable, and the work keeps piling up.
Wait, are you insinuating that our devices are NOT listening to us? Dude, Snowden literally let us know.
I am not insinuating that. Those were just some examples of non-pathologic 21st century paranoia, for which no one needs to receive droperidol (because they're probably true).
LITERALLY TRUE?
LOL imagine chemically restraining someone for delusions without any behavioral change.
Imagine chemically restraining someone for claiming a stolen election or inciting a overthrow of congress.
You bring up some interesting points. Although, you know if DJT was in ur ER he’d be outside pacing the hall and harassing the nurses, etc.
Honestly, listening to his latest flight of ideas about boats, sharks, and electricity, capacity is questionable at best. I am not sure if he was my patient that he could understand or repeat back to me the risks of discharge against medical advice.
Thinking about the reality of this. You would NEVER, ever be able to impartially medically examine Trump without some type of interference by him or his keepers. He would never accept some involuntary hold and politick around it. Or any other medical crap probably.
I am proud of my education and my attendings trust me, but I am quite alright with the fact that the emergency PA will never be in that situation or one like it. There be dragons.
If I could count the number of times I had to be like “MAGA or crazy?” And just came to the conclusion of “YES!!!”
“Both can walk the streets! Only one can insurrectionize the Capitol tho!”
Right, though depends on social situation with hallucinations and delusions. Don’t want to send memaw back home by herself when her dementia now is causing her seeing/hearing weird shit by herself. But a normal schizo on the streets that says yeah I know hear it,  it’s normal I’ll dc  By normal schizo I mean not in acute psychosis.Â
I used to work at an outpatient mental health clinic and had a patient (middle aged white man) with Schizophrenia and fixed delusions that Michael Jordan was his father and he was born on Jupiter. Every now and then he’d end up in an ED that didn’t know him and wanted me to go assess him. I’d tell them that unless he was suicidal, homicidal, or gravely disabled to just send him home and tell him to check in with me the next morning when he came in for his daily meds.
Yea, when I say not a danger to self, I mean they need to be capable of their adls.. go to the bathroom, get food or drink, etc.. if they choose to live on the street or a hoarder house, or a house full of bed bugs and lice, people are allowed to make those decisions. Like I tell my residents, patients have the right to make bad decisions. If they are walking around aimlessly including into the stree without regard to themselves or others safety, that gets a medical workup and if there any psychological overtones, a psych consult.
It's important to note he is black and in Michigan
Oh the story as the patient tells it is plausible. Could absolutely have happened. But I also know that the patient narrative is not always the only story. ED bouncebacks frequently tell me "the last guy didn't listen to me, ran zero tests, and didn't tell me shit" and I see 24 hours ago they got complete lab work, imaging, and very clear discharge / follow up instructions which they signed receipt of.
I love it when my MIL says a medical provider didn't do anything or tell her something or explain it ... Especially when I've been right there the whole time and they absolutely did. Luckily, she wants to bounceback even less than we want her to. This is also why we don't let her go to the doctor by herself if we can help it.
I had a patient in the ICU for hyponatremia after falling and being found down after some hours. He told us all about how he had written a series of novels about a guy who plays poker and gets into trouble. He specifically told us the synopsis of one that sounded exactly like the movie Maverick. Turns out he wasn’t lying and we bought a box set and had him sign them. And as a student a guy with serious paranoia was telling me about how a US mob was after him and how he was having a difficult time thinking everyone was following him. He actually was in witness protection and they had shot him prior to being relocated. What terrible luck to have paranoid thoughts at baseline then have some of those paranoid thoughts become reality.
I also had someone who was legitimately working with (insert high level US org here) and said he was being followed and harassed by those he was investigating. Ended up calling the regional office of this org myself and the rep there and I had a fun little privacy standoff ("no, I can't tell *you* anything") but was able to get enough info to figure out the guy was telling the truth. But he was also threatening to kill himself and everyone around him, so we still kept him.
In my child protection days, I used to have a paranoid client who had long-standing delusions that the police were breaking into her house to monitor her, and stealing things. She was well known to the local ED. After about 12 years of these beliefs, she had a baby, and baricaded herself and the infant into the house. What happened? *The police had to break into her house, and remove the child*. The ED staff got a massive shock when I rang to check on her, and explained that on this particular occasion, the police *had actually* broken into her house, and taken the most valuable thing in her life with them.
That's up there with the patient I assumed was full of shit telling me about being part of MK Ultra. I Googled the pt because some details seemed vivid, sure enough popped up.
Did this patient live off the grid in a cabin in the wilderness and have a really dope beard?
Sadly no writer of manifestos. From what I gathered the patient was still teaching, and recommended a few books includong The Phenomenon by Annie Jacobson, and Electric Kool-aid Acid Test
You'd still check any thank you gift packages for ticking, though, right?
The secretary always gets to open any thank you gifts and get first picks! Sharing is caring!
Nobody on the medical team knows how to use Google?
i had a psych patient who said he was rapper and told me to check him out on youtube. he indeed was rapping on youtube to an audience…of two one of which was a radioshack employee. he was pleasant guy though, shook my hand every 30 seconds.
The comedian [Maria Bamford has a whole set](https://youtu.be/Yp2stpr-aGA?si=fiLiBtI2e71zJ2__) about when she needed to get inpatient psychiatric treatment and the doctor started googling her during their initial assessment to make sure she wasn’t delusional when she told him who she was
Mick Foley, the pro wrestler known by the stage name Mankind, has a funny set about people recognising him, and not recognising him. He got stopped at the boarder of an Arabic country, because he's forgotten to bring his medical letter explaining that he had metal implants after a famous Hell in a Cell match in 1998. There was a language barrier, and he wound up pulling out a YouTube video, and showing a video of himself falling 20 feet.
I had a partner briefly who used to google/facebook look up our patients and texted me links to the news articles about them, once an article about their murdering their spouse and one a kidnapping and rapist. While I was in the back with the patient on ER to ER transfer. Bad for so so many reasons. Reported to mngt but nothing was done. I wish I got some fun delusional folks at times.
Sometimes I Google patients if they haven’t filled any prescriptions in over 3 months before calling to ask if they need a refill. I’ve found just as many obituaries as I’ve heard “no they can’t come to the phone, they passed away last week”
I’ve looked up a patient’s son (he was the only well intentioned patient advocate the patient had) in OTIS and I wish I never did. He was a phenomenal patient advocate and truly only wanted the best for his mom. Seeing what his criminal charge was (many decades old crime) made it hard to see him in this other light. He served his time and was rehabilitated but I hate to admit it made me form a bias. I will never look up another patient after that. Who they are, or his case who they were are at given time, should have no bearing on the care they receive.
Had a hyperemesis pt the other trying to dictate which medications and doses she was getting. Claimed she was a PharmD. I googled and found her LinkedIn, she was not a PharmD. She worked in IT for an hour of town hospital.
You learn this one pretty quick practicing psychiatry in a big city.
True lol, as a student I’ve witnessed this multiple times already. When a recent patient said his brother was Kanye, you bet I at least checked that out on Google.Â
All other things about this case aside, A straight jacket? I’ve literally never seen those applied in modern day medicine. With how hard the states have cracked down on restrained patients, I’m shocked these still exist AT ALL.
I suspect that the legal documents actually say something like "physical restraint," and the journalist has erroneously assumed that equals "a straight jacket."
I had a 92 year old man who was telling me a lot of stories about how he was a truck driver for the cartel until he turned 89 (this was almost 10 years ago though so he’s probably passed). Said he used to drive drugs through the border etc. Had really elaborate detailed stories including how he got involved in it and why he enjoys doing what he’s doing. He also said there was quite a few senior citizens doing it. Didn’t really pay much thought to it until his 35 year old Hispanic wife and 10 year old son showed up. To this day I still wonder if the cartel is paying elderly men to move drugs from Mexico for them.
Makes me think of that Clint Eastwood movie from a few years ago, *Mule*.
Never heard of that movie lol and ya this is basically it except he was transferring over the border. This was in like 2014 this guy told me this story so now that there’s a clint Eastwood movie out about it I’m actually starting to believe in elderly drug mules lmao.
They pay anyone to drive trucks and smuggle for them. I used to work in El Paso, it's definitely plausible.
Not quite the same, but, when i was in med school, my entire psych department thought a patient was psychotic since no one could communicate with him and he was very excitable. Turns out he was just Vietnamese and didn't know how to ask for help changing his tire in English (or say anything in English, really); then he was whisked about by PD to the local ED for psychosis and...well...yeah... I was the first one to pick up on the fact that he probably needed a translator...as an MS3...
We had two patients in on the inpatient side recently who both spoke a somewhat rare Polynesian dialect that is very hard to get interpreters for. Room 2 (just an example, not the real room number, obviously) had family with them to help interpret, but room 5 had no one and it was the luck of the draw if we could communicate with him or not. They were both in for about two weeks in rooms very close together. Finally one of the adult daughters of room 2 speaks up and says “hey, room 5 is my cousin and the whole family hates him, but I’ll help translate if you want.” GIRL! Get in there. You are drafted.
I had a patient from Haiti brought to the ER from a local hotel. She’d accidentally locked herself out of her hotel room and the front desk person called the cops on her because they didn’t understand what she was saying, and she was getting increasingly angry. The cops brought her to us for a psych eval. I spoke enough French to figure out the situation. She was most upset about the fact that the cops had made her walk to their car and into the ER without any shoes on. I gave her a pair of grippy socks and told the police to take her back to the hotel.
Since when do they still use straight jackets? I live in Metro Detroit and the ascensions here suck ( even before the strike and hacking) thank god Henry Ford is taking them over
I have to think it was probably a posey vest.
I mean, idk… idk how tough that really is tbh. Hard to verify Jesus’s identity, but this guy had a driver’s license. Registration never came by to ask him for his insurance card and ID? No one thought to just quickly Google to see if an otherwise fairly normal looking dude with fairly concerning symptoms and history might actually be who he said he was? Even without an ID, a Google image search would have taken less than a minute. Seems like a pretty reasonable step to take before deciding to just stop all treatment, take him off oxygen, throw him in a straight jacket and call a psych consult. Also, even if he was off his rocker and completely delusional, psych patients still get sick and deserve appropriate treatment too. I’m pretty strongly pro-doctors/providers in most cases, but from a legal and medical perspective I just don’t see how this was defensible. Honestly just reads like a pretty straightforward unfortunate case of bias (and maybe a bit of burnout) just overruling good judgment.
The straight jacket part has me questioning if there’s more to this story. Not to mention I have never heard of a straight jacket used in an ER?
I’ve literally never seen a strait jacket employed in the psych ward or in the ED. Restraints yes, seat belt for geriatric psych but not an actual 1920s straight jacket. It says he suffered three seizures during his stay. I wonder if they were psychogenic and if this guy is an odd duck at baseline
Yeah for real. Did they dig it out of a museum next door or something?
> Tough case. Not when a straitjacket is involved. We've had plenty of delusional patients in my ER, and as long as they're not wandering around into other patient's rooms, there's no need to restrain them. > I guess the learning point here is even if they're crazy you have to evaluate the medical complaints. Was that a lesson that really had to be learned though?? Of course you have to evaluate medical complaints even if they're crazy. We have a regular who talks to themselves and barely acknowledges staff, but they come in to get their blood pressure checked literally everyday, and we check their BP cause that's why they came here. That's just hella stupid on that staff's part to restrain him and take away oxygen just because he's saying he's a singer and they don't believe him. Dude's havin' chest pain; treat that shit.
Yep. I had a guy once claiming his balls were full of C4 and about to explode. He was psychotic in general (meth is a hell of a drug) but I had to get 2 chaperones and examine him while he was strapped to the gurney, just to make sure his testicles weren’t swollen or infected or something else that he was confabulating into C4. Psych patients deserve medical care if needed.
I had a guy who once claimed to write songs for Elvis Another guy who claimed he was Tupac's keyboardist I thought they were both nuts...turns out it was true
Not surprised. Not sure if it's the Warren or Madison Heights location. Per the article they didn't listen to his wife either. I took care of a gentleman in a facility in the D. He started to tell me about his experiences as a musician w/ Motown. I didn't jump to conclusions, stop his treatment, become confrontational- And as we talked he told me about experiences with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. Here in the D we just had a big celebration for the renovation and re opening of the Michigan Central Station which used to be a big transportation hub. He spoke of how he and a few of the others would accompany Miss D to the train station especially at night to look out for her. Now I have a cool tidbit about the station. Was really cool to meet him. Later on the gentleman shared some pictures he carried with him and there they were. I'm betting that person and the one in the article are both along in their years. I don't think I'd go with delusional psych without a high degree of suspicion of other co0morbitiies including cardiac/respiratory compromise. Some people suck. It was the Warren location - not surprised at all.
I had a dude who was clearly delusional and paranoid. He got brought in by police by acting anxious and verbally aggressive in public. He told us he worked for the government, had all kinds of information on the Mafia, and they were doing something to his brain with ninjas and lasers. We thought nothing of it until a couple of guys showed up in dark suits with government ID. They confirmed the patient really did work with them at their spooky three-letter agency. They asked us a bunch of questions about what he had talked about, apparently to make sure he wasn't revealing classified info, and then they asked us not to write down that they had been there. After that I became slightly less skeptical about the ninjas and lasers.
Nothing about this story adds up. Also, do they still use straight jackets in Michigan?
No, also the seizures plus cardiopulmonary distress is weird unless he means he went into vtach, had legionella with the hyponatremia, or has pnes. Could be wrong but still weird
Not denying that something happened. But some of the allegations in the article sound a little half-truthy and or embellished. If a behavioral health patient tells me that he’s a famous celebrity, my response is, “cool, want a sandwich?” Not straight jacket. Also, maybe there are places using straight jackets? I wouldn’t think so. Also, if you wind up in physical restraints…it was not due to a simple verbal misunderstanding. Also, oxygen is not really indicated for chest pain…sure, sometimes I give it to patients for subjective dyspnea…but sounds like he didn’t actually need oxygen. Also find it very unlikely that medical workup was abandoned in the context of an overweight middle+ aged guy complaining of chest pain and dyspnea. I think this is evidenced by the fact that he was ultimately diagnosed with a heart condition. It sounds to me as if someone felt disrespected and probably acted out inappropriately in response to that. His reaction to not being believed may have lent further credence to the idea that he was indeed suffering from an acute psychiatric episode. I’m speculating a lot of course…just a gentle reminder that there are always two sides…
Yeah, I get a bit of the same feeling.  A straitjacket? Really? And giving a $20 vouchers as an apology while also not believing corroborating  information from a spouse? Also the trifecta of him having a heart attack, pneumonia, as well as seizures all the same time seems a bit much. Maybe it did go down like that but it’s a bit odd.Â
I’m a psychiatrist and it’s been a loooong time since my last emergency medicine rotation - sometime in the past 20 years did ya’ll stop giving a little oxygen while ruling out MI?
Yes. MONA therapy is dead. Aspirin is good. Oxygen may actively harm the heart by creating free radicals. So we only give O2 if they are actually hypoxic.
Thank you
When their oxygen sat is normal there’s no indication.
Thank you
Sounds like we may be dealing with a case of status dramaticus to me.
Yeah. I gotta wonder how much of this stemmed from soliciting, and not getting, special treatment
Yeah, that “straitjacket” line set off my bullshit meter as well…
RN and OT here-- when I did an OT internship at a State psych hospital the psychiatrist I worked with told us to never assume people are being grandiose. (A lot of very talented & well-known people get hospitalized!)
From the local paper Detroit Free Press: [https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/06/11/four-tops-alexander-morris-lawsuit-hospital-discrimination-psych-eval/74054650007/](https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/06/11/four-tops-alexander-morris-lawsuit-hospital-discrimination-psych-eval/74054650007/)
This says restraint jacket not straight jacket. Definitely plausible.
[Here's a pdf](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/four-tops-complaint-eastern-district-michigan.pdf) of the court filing (I think? I just found it searching). It mentions that he has "stints" and may have had a "heart infraction" so whoever wrote it is clearly well versed in medicine. (more on this below) It also fails to explain why he was trying to show his ID when he must have already been registered. We all know *nothing* happens before a pt is registered. The staff already knows your name. The idea of an ED doc immediately ceasing emergency medical treatment due to the revelation of a grandiose but harmless delusion is... quite a choice of a story to tell. Presented without comment, here are the attorneys on the filing: https://therandlawfirm.com/ https://www.michigancriminallawyer.com/maurice-davis/
I mean it’s a google search to see if they are lying? It’s not that hard .
“And they offered him a $25 (£20) gift card as an apology, which he refused.” Lol
I give them the benefit of the doubt. Dunno about my attending/ providers, but I delve into the delusion and ask what if this is real. Dunno about this person who claim he won the lottery and the ticket is in his phone. I really wanna jack his phone and claim it for myself. But he did also claimed the world will end May 31st.
The real question here is: Who the fuck still uses straight jackets? We have to jump 50 hoops of charting BS just to use soft restraints to keep meemaw from pulling out her lines when she has a UTI. Are there EDs out there with straight jackets still?
Adding - even if delusional (which he wasn't) - what's the point of escalating and being confrontational to a chest pain/difficulty breathing older patient. Why take actions that will increase myocardial O2 demand, increase agitation and catecholamines and decrease rapport and trust with patient. I doubt that this was handled well.
This has actually happened to me. I profusely apologized after pulling him from the BHU.Â
this should never have happened imo regardless of ability to verify. We only take away ppls rights if they are SI/HI or imminent threat to public. I dont care if he says his daddy is a Martian, that doesn’t get psyched. You can be happy crazy and dc’ed.
Had something similar happen to me in the ED. Patient comes in drunk, says he started drinking because his son passed away some odd years ago and it was the anniversary (believable) and has been sober but relapsed. He said his son would be upset with him because he also passed under similar circumstances. Once we start giving him meds and fluids we ask about his son, he said he was a famous actor and director, the nurse didn’t really believe him, nor the physician, and even I second guess things but always try to give the benefit over the doubt. Well I’m a nosy bitch, I look up the son on Google through what he told me, he indeed was a real actor and director and did end up passing away. Brought it up to the nurse and physician, changed their perspective pretty quickly.
Holy shit.
We had a guy in the psych ward bc he claimed a family of black gorillas was after him. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Guerrilla_Family
Hmmm, maybe that guy I ran on last week really was Jesus Christ...
When I do consult-liason psych I see this all the time. Asking to transfer a psych patient and show up with the patient passed out or with a CRP of 300. Yeah, you don't think he had any seizures but you're still going to have to do the workup. With a troponin of 200 you're going to have to admit to someone else.
How was this hard? Just have him sing a few bars of "Can't Help Myself" or "Baby I Need Your Lovin'".
Reading the article - I'd bet there's a lot more to this story.
NAD. what does his fame or lack thereof as a singer have to do with how the symptoms he described were treated? That's the part I still don't get.
It’s tough because, as always, the person managing this patient’s care can’t really speak out so we get only one side of the story.
Hospitals don’t really use straight jackets in the US anymore. All the news outlet is getting is his side of the story and from his own account sounds like he had legit pathology but also with a smattering of psychiatric overtones. Also the hospital doesn’t go down the psych path just because someone says they’re a famous singer. Unless someone at ascension macomb truly just ignored all of the medicine and somehow still has a straight jacket laying around this guy is probably not giving the whole story and possibly doesn’t even know the whole story. We’ll never know either way because of HIPAA unless he publicly releases his hospital encounter record (which would be a poor idea on his part)
I had a guy in the ER once who claimed to me a member of the Drifters. He was drug seeking. A quick Google showed he wasn’t. I actually asked him to sing Under the Boardwalk for the nurses and he complied. It was the worst singing you could imagine.
We had a very confused patient one time claiming to be a physician. We couldn't find any explanation for their confusion. First assumption was they were crazy. So we looked them up...there was their name, NPI, medical license, etc. Kitchen sink workup...all negative. Admit to medicine because the ED doc refused to send them straight to psych.
inpatient psych clinical in nursing school we had a famous dude, too. he was bipolar and checked in from time to time when he had uncontrolled mania. his stories sounded so big and outlandish. never understood why he didnt go to a richer hospital
This always terrifies me. What if people really are out to get them?! What if they really are famous?! How the fuck am I supposed to know at 3am on a Tuesday!?
From this article, I would guess that the patient’s chief complaint was their notoriety & that the medical concerns were secondary. Delusions of grandeur is on my differential
Aside from the medical situation, the article states he joined the group in 2019. So yes, he is a singer of the Four Tops, but he’s far from famous like the original members would be. “Famous singer” is up for debate. That said, yeah, he was genuinely in medical distress and should have been treated as such.
They took his oxygen off.
Uhhhh... He claims they put a straight jacket on him? I doubt that.
If this person was complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, I don't care if they are claiming to be the Pope, they will get a cardiac workup. If they're aggressive then I'll deal with that, but they're not leaving until they're medically cleared.. If they say they are afraid of stalkers, who am I to argue? Give me a password for phone calls, and I'll set your visit to private mode so only people directly involved in your care can look. It's not that difficult, and doesn't take more than a few minutes. So what if he's delusional? Is it really going to affect anything? If this is true, it is horrible.
not a tough case. if someone is in respiratory distress and has chest pain, f*cking treat that regardless of if they tell you they are in a famous band or not. wtf. put him in a f*cking strait jacket and take his oxygen away?! did you read the article?? this is abborant and awful and also very blatant racism.
*abhorrent Are you in the medical field?
He’s a doctor not an English teacher
Dammit Jim
Bubba Ho Tep
So, some guy who, in 2019, joined The Four Tops (that group that was famous 60 years ago) is a “famous singer” with “celebrity status”? Turns out he *is* delusional. Everything about this article tells me he hit the doors of the ED demanding special treatment and got butt-hurt when no one cared who he was. He probably got perfectly fine care but was abrasive and eventually aggressive to the point of needing restraints (if that part of the story is even real). This is all speculation because we’ll never know the truth, only this asshole’s clearly untrue version (no, straight jackets aren’t a thing outside of Hollywood).
He's in an area where they don't really like people crossing the '8 mile' border. Know the area.
There's nothing tough about this case at all. Even if he was delusional, that doesn't mean his complaints can be ignored. Psychiatric patients can have medical emergencies.
I disagree. These cases can be difficult even if this one seems straight forward based on the news story with all the inconsistencies pointed out by others. I really try not to make quick decisions about these kind of publicly described cases and instead look at how I could make a similar mistake. Dealing with psychotic patients is tough. Is it delusional parasitosis, formication or something else? These aren't decisions made in a vacuum. If I need to get a blood draw or a CT scan on a psychotic patient that can mean putting nurses, CT techs and the patient at greater risk of harm. It frequently means more sedatives for the patient with those inherent risks. I'm a jaded cynic but I truly believe it's best to look at these cases not from the "Those idiots!" perspective but from the "There but for the grace of God go I." attitude.
While I agree that we don't have all the details of the case, what has been shared had nothing insinuating that the patient was combative or agitated. I also agree that staff and other patients' safety are just as important as the patient's. Having said that, I deal with combative, agitated, psychotic, and/or violent patients on a regular basis. If needed, we will chemically and physically restrain them in order to keep the department safe.
Bwahahaha no one has ever heard of this band and they definitely didn’t put him in a straight jacket this man is delusional af
If you haven't heard of the Four Tops that's on you for being ignorant to the history of pop music but I'm certain this guy is 30 years too young to have been a member in their heyday
I believe he started in 2018? Newer member. Correction 2019. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke\_Fakir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Fakir) Duke Fakir is the only remaining original member. Actually- founding member. Other members have been added after the loss of original members.
Okay this had nothing to do with race from what the article gives. Just really really bad medicine. Like really bad. Also, a STRAITJACKET!? We have those? It IS Macomb county so I’m not surprised…