Look what I got!

This is what I was presented with yesterday at work.......



That's right, I got a commendation from the Sheriff yesterday for helping save the life an inmate on the day after Thanksgiving!!

How this whole thing come to pass you ask? Well here is the story.

On the 28th of November I was working in our Special Management section of the jail. This section houses women, "special" needs inmates, work release inmates, and our Disciplinary Segregation inmates. All in separate spaces, of course.

It was 6:45 in the morning and I was finishing up passing out morning medications to those who get them. My last person is a guy who is on work release and is a diabetic. He will be referred to as DD from here on out. Since DD has been in our facility he has been documented saying that he would purposely mess around with his insulin to get the county in trouble, and so he could sue us for money. Needless to say we keep a very close eye on him while he is in the jail. DD is known to take insulin right before he comes in from work (when he does not need it) to drive his blood sugars really low (around 25) and then force us to deal with his low blood sugar. It is a game DD plays and his life that puts on the line every time he takes insulin that he does not need.

Anyways, I had DD check his blood sugar and it was at a 43. That is low and normally I would have given him a glucose tab or some juice to bring him up. It was only 10 minutes before breakfast though so I did not give him one since I knew the food would bring him up. After DD tested his blood he told me he was going to draw 26 units of the long lasting insulin and 8 units of the fast acting insulin. When he drew the long lasting insulin, it looked to me like he had drawn to much but I wasn't sure so I let him draw his fast acting right away as well. When DD drew the fast acting, which was suppose to be 8 units, I noticed that he actually drew somewhere between 13-18 units instead of the 8 he told me he was going to. I immediately questioned his draw as he stuck the fast acting into his side. I told DD to pull the needle back out so I could see how much insulin he had drawn. He refused, and with a smug little smile, injected himself without showing me. I was pissed!! I then grabbed the other needle he had drawn with the long lasting insulin and looked at it to see how much he had pulled. The long lasting was pulled to 32 units. That is 6 units more than he said he was going to pull! I again questioned him and he told me "don't fucking question my insulin use." Can you believe that? If I don't question and verify how much insulin he is taking, I am not doing my job. After a bit of arguing discussion, DD finally put the 26 units he was suppose to have drawn into a new needle. He then went back into the unit and then breakfast was served a few minutes later.

The next time DD needed to check his blood sugar was at lunch time. When he came out he checked his blood, told me he was going to pull 8 units of fast acting stuff again, and then started to draw his insulin. When he showed me the needle, he had put in 13 units! I called him on it again, and again he got pissy, but in the end he adjusted the insulin level in the needle and took only 8 units. When I got back to the office I immediately wrote a report of what had happened during the morning, called my Sergeant to let him know what had happened, and called our nursing unit and left a message for them about what had happened. I also wrote on our pass on (for the next deputies coming on)to watch him close and really monitor his insulin draws.

Around 3pm that afternoon one of the deputies that was now working in the special unit was walking around on a well being check and stopped at DD's door and noticed that he was on his back sleeping and seemed to be breathing normal. Or so the deputy thought. He finished the rest of his check in the work release unit, and then had a gut feeling that he should check on DD one more time. And it was a good thing he did. When he opened the cell door to talk to DD, the deputy heard a gurgling noise and saw that DD was foaming at the mouth. The deputy immediately called a medical emergency. The sergeant had me call EMS and they responded within 2 minutes. It was a flurry of activity for the next hour as EMS tended to DD. When the deputy opened the door, DD was totally unresponsive and EMS stated that if it were not for the fast action and good eye by both myself (for noticing that he was messing with his insulin) and the other deputy, DD surely would have died within the half hour. As it was, EMS could not find a vein for an IV for almost 20 minutes. DD's veins had started to collapse and he was lucky that EMS was able to find one that could be used.
In the end, DD made it through and is ok. Still a raging dick, but at least he is still alive to be one. Our Sergeant wrote a very nice email to the jail administrators and to the Sheriff and Chief Deputy Sheriff to let them know about our crews actions that Friday.

Then yesterday, the main deputies that were involved received the commendation and we were told that at the yearly awards banquet we would be awarded with a life saving badge to wear as part of our uniforms when we are on duty! Pretty cool I think.
I certainly don't do my job for any sort of glory, and there are some negative nancies at work who didn't think that the incident was that big of a deal. But it was a very nice thing to be recognized for what my fellow deputies and I did. I never in a million years had expected getting an honor like this in the facility that I work in.

And that is the story of my Thursday, December 4th, 2008!!!

Greg