Toxic Tea by Carol Creswell

It was hot and noisy on the surgical ward at twilight in the summer of 1958. New patients had been admitted for the next a.m. surgery and the young externs were making rounds and taking verbal histories of their patients for medical records and the next day’s procedures.

The young head nurse felt sorry for the would-be doctors who had been assigned to this obscure hospital in a small college town. They were working slowly and carefully, conducting their interviews and going room to room, dealing with clients. Some patients were hard-of-hearing, some were apprehensive, and most were just plain hostile and stone-faced and resented intrusion of their privacy with the questions about bowel habits and sex partners.

Nurse Annie decided she would make some nice fresh iced tea to refresh the docs a little. They were a cute gang of guys and she wanted to make a good impression.

Finishing her medication distributions to the patients, she got busy in the tiny kitchen on the ward.

Teabags? Check.   Ice water? Check.  Sugar? Check.  Lemon?  OH OH. No lemon ANYWHERE and the main kitchen was undoubtedly closed at this late hour.  Hmmm…what to substitute? Jelly pack? Nope. Milk or cream?  Gosh, no.

Aha! What about this bottle of G.I. prep for a colonoscopy? It was strongly lemon-flavored and just a little bit wouldn’t hurt. She mixed and measured and prepared a tray with tea and ice and a few stale cookies from a glass bin of sweets. She carried it all down the hall and with her brightest smile and cutest wiggle she went to each room and offered the externs a drink. MOST OF THE PATIENTS WERE N.P.O.—meaning nothing per os or mouth—and couldn’t partake. THAT TURNED OUT TO BE A BLESSING.

Nurse Annie was complimented and thanked and received a few winks and hugs that made her heart skip a beat. Feeling very self-satisfied, she clocked off duty and left for her apartment at 10 p.m.

NEXT DAY.

7 a.m.

Nurse Annie came on duty to chaos. Externs had all been seen in the ER—emergency room—for unexplained diarrhea. Was there a new Virus on the ward?

Do we cancel surgery?

IS THIS AN EPIDEMIC?

Blood studies of the externs proved negative, and the diarrhea crisis passed by 11 a.m.

Annie didn’t have the ’chops’ to explain what every guy had been drinking on the hospital ward the previous night.

Some had gone out for a beer at 10 that night and blamed it on ‘that bar we went to.’

THANK GOD.

The End

Copyright © 2018, Carol Creswell

THE ESSAY TITLED TOXIC TEA IS COPYRIGHTED AS PART OF A BOOK CALLED ‘HELP! NURSE!’ TO BE PUBLISHED BY AUTHOR CAROL CRESWELL R.N.