I tried finding any other area, maybe this could go, so don't post too many new topics, but didn't really fit anywhere else again, heh.

So yeah, 5am this morning. I'm sitting in an uncomfortable hardbacked chair in a hospital awaiting my mom to come back from an xray, when the patient adjacent to my mom's little curtained off part of the room awakens. As I sit and listen even when my mom comes back, I hear that he's a boy who tried to hurt himself, cut his wrist all the way to the tendon, and the docs were patching it up. As we were soon awaiting my mom's discharge the nurse asks the boy if there's anyone he'd like to call? He's like his girlfriend who's name was ashley or that if jennifer answered ask for ashley. The nurse can't get ahold of her, so gives him the phone and is like if you get ahold of them, let me talk to them before you hang up. As I listen to my mom and subsequently the boy, I feel bad for him. I mean he cut himself, so I'm thinking might've tried for suicide and then his phone calls are like someone please, please pick up, I want to go home. I'm like been around enough to understand why he'd want to go home.

Then all of a sudden he gets ahold of someone, don't know who and I hear 'I need you to lie to the nurse so I can get released.' I'm thinking okay, that's a bit desperate and then he repeated. 'I need you to lie to the nurse and pretend that you're jennifer,' (Which I found out was his mom) 'and that you can't come pick me up and you'll be waiting for me if I decide to walk home, so they can release me.' I suddenly have a really bad feeling go through me over this whole thing. And it triples when the nurse comes in and talks to the person and they say they are his mom and can't come pick him up and he convinces everyone he can walk home. As the doctors come to release him and subsequently my mom and I, I'm debating on whether to say something to the nurses about him and the person on the phone lying, or whether to let it be his mistake and him possibly losing his life over it if he's not as cured as everyone was hoping, including his doctor.

My mom has to use a restroom on the other side of a nurses station and a nurse is sitting like right in front of me. As I wait I debate and finally approach the nurse. She's like can I help you? And I'm like tongue tied, like should I say something or not? Then my mom comes out and is like let's go and asks the nurse is something wrong. Nurse is like she looks like she has something to say. I turn to my mom and like it's about that boy who was still getting ready to leave in the room. Finally I did make the decision to tell the nurse that the boy lied and she's like I did the right thing and I'm like wouldn't want him to be held against his will, but didn't want him getting hurt on my conscious either. So we finally leave and suddenly episode got a twist on it. I caught a glimpse of the boy when walking past him before my mom went to bathroom, and as we're walking to the car. I see him run by us at full speed like a gazelle chased by lions, trying to keep his pants on at the same time. I'm like they must have released him, at least until I see the nurses and a doctor go running after him calling out wait. My mom's asking should she call 911 and their like they have security after him. They catch up to him and he goes down on the ground and we get in the car and drive away.

The whole thing left me a bit thoughtful, where it became question of when to interfere? My mind is like I'm always willing to let ppl make their mistakes and not impede them and yet, then you get things like above, where if I didn't say anything, don't know what could've happened. So what do you all think? Any opinions?

I wonder ...

How come the hospital takes in an underaged child for treatment and doesn't notify the parents themselves? They should be able to get a phone number from their databases or just take someone's cell and dial "mom", "dad" or "home".

And how come they'd even let that underaged child check out without supervision present, knowing he attempted suicide?

If he really was suicidal the nurses acted very unprofessional.

Either way, you can't stop someone from doing stupid things, only delay them and hope they it out of their system in the meanwhile. So it's often better to let them do stupid things and learn things the hard way.

I do get why you did what you did, to soothe your own guilt but to be honest I don't think it improved the situation for that boy.

Well, I have a problem with mixing words. Said boy was probably about 17 or 18. Just the docs said he's too young to go through hurting himself, so I had originally thought he was maybe like a 13 year old kid Only when saw him realized about 18 or 17.

Not to mention, docs didn't want his parents to pick him up, they just wanted a responsible adult to pick him up and keep an eye on him, which is why I didn't get why he'd lie, if they just needed someone who sounded sober and responsible. Any friend could've pulled that off, esp if they were willing to let him go to his gf's house.

As to getting a number, he came in only in shorts and with a bloody cut wrist and was drunk from what I could gather from spurts of the doc speaking. not to mention (Whether it was a lie or not, I dunno) That his girlfriend ended up getting locked up in jail for whatever reason, but again, he spoke to the person first, not the nurses.

Either way, I did and didn't do it just to assuage my own guilt. I did it cause I felt that long lost feeling to protect another at all costs, even from themselves. I haven't felt compelled to interfere in a situation like that for a long time. I myself have a friend who I've been trying to keep from cutting himself, but with him I didn't interfere, cause he said he liked it and snapped at me, everytime I tried to advise him, of course only when he asked first, which was rhetorical plea for help I guess.

Anyway I digress. I figure whatever I decided to do, would've not have improved the situation for the boy. For one he said something about he was already in trouble with the law when his parents allegedly dragged him to hospital, drunk and bloody. So I don't know. Too many variables to it all that just made my head hurt. I just felt the urge to tell someone and I follow my instincts, so I told the nurse, he ran, and I left. heh