SUMMER OF BLOOD

I was talking to one of my old team mates from CSO about the summer of 1988. I had initially called to confirm the year and we ended up reminiscing a bit about the whole experience. He likened it to a tour of duty. He's right,it was frequently like war.A shift in CSO was 8 hours of relative calm interrupted by moments of unbridled craziness and violence.
During the summer of 1998 there wasn't a night that we didn't go home without either torn or bloody clothing.
There had been a shift in the patient population that I'm sure continues to this day. They were an angrier, more violent kind of crazy, and for better or worse, we got to deal with it.
Another team member left a note in our communication book that summer that said simply "frozen on the inside,burnt and crispy on the outside". He didn't have to say anything else.We all knew what he meant.
I wish I had the ability to convey how incredibly intense it was...but I'll try with a couple of incidents:
THE FERAL CHILD
We got an emergency call from the latency aged boys unit one night around 9:30, this kid we had dealt with alot was completely out of control following a family therapy and visit with his mom earlier in the day. He wanted a fight and he set it up so he got one. This was on the tail end of the summer, fall actually, it was right before thanksgiving.
The guy I called about this post and I responded to the unit, which was at the far end of the campus. The only security room available was on one of the locked units, at the opposite end.About 300 yards away I'm guessing.
He of course refused to walk to the security room, so we put him in a two person escort restraint and headed out the door. We made it about 100 feet and he started fighting us so we dropped him. We got him up and made it about 200 feet before we had to drop him again. This happened over and over again and it took us about 45 minutes to get him to the security room. By the time we got there I had lost it. It had been a summer full of this kind of shit and I had had enough. I left my unconditional regard at the door and basically went into bouncer mode. We manhandled the kid into the security room, folded him up like a pretzel and shoved his face into the far corner from the door, my team mate left the room and I was preparing to do the jump off when I realized he had a gold necklace on...he couldn't have that in a security room. He wouldn't give it up so I in a rage, ripped it off of his neck. It's a miracle I didn't garrot him in the process.
I did the jump off, locked him in and stormed off the unit. My team mate said something about paperwork and I responded with something along the lines of "fuck it, you do the fucking paperwork".
I returned to the office where our other team mate asked what took us so long, I went off on a tirade about this kid that would curl your hair, my team mate admonished me to be quiet, as there were other kids from his unit sitting on the processing bench not 10 feet away...I said something brilliant like "fuck them,let them learn a lesson" at which point she (god bless her) suggested that maybe I should leave. I said "fine-I'm fucking out of here" , Threw my keys across the desk at her and stormed out. Like I said, I had completely lost my mind.
This little incident would result in 5 days off with pay with the stipulation that I return to work as my normal self or leave the team. After much soul searching and nightmares, I resolved to return to the front and finish my tour. I also processed with the kid and mended the therapeutic fence with him.
I GET MY ASS KICKED AND GO TO THE ER FOR THE 3RD TIME
There was this kid from ICU that was crazier than a shit house rat and we had him in one of our security rooms. He was yelling and screaming and punching the walls. We couldn't allow him to hurt himself, so we had to ruck up and go in and restrain him. There were 5 of us on the team going in...I had point and the other 4 had been assigned limbs to grab.
( I think I've told this story here before, but what the hell ).The guy at the observation window said "go" and we went, I came through the door and was met by a pummeling to my face by this kid, he knocked the fuck out of me and stopped my forward progress, causing the other 4 guys to jam up and into me, stomping my foot. It was chaos.
I put my head down and ran this kid into the wall and threw him to the floor. I ended up on my back with him under me with a death grip on my shirt,chest hair and beard. I grabbed his ring and pinky fingers and bent back as far as I could...he finally let go, but I'm surprised I didn't break them because I was trying to break them.We gained control of the situation, and the next thing I know I'm on his legs raving like a mad man. My original unit coordinator pulled me off and sent me packing. I sat on a picnic table in the quad sobbing uncontrollably for a while and then I saw the nurse.
I headed home but ended up at my parents house...when my mom opened the door I fell into her arms crying like a baby.
I went to the ER the next morning and they told me I had a concussion and my left foot was severely bruised and possibly fractured. And all because the guy at the observation was preoccupied about personal shit so his timing was off.
I could go on and on...but my buddy Cris is writing his recollection of a really harrowing experience he had and when I get it I will share it with you.
Then, at his suggestion, I'll write a bit about the fun times we had as a team.