Dumbass

I've been on call all weekend. How busy that makes you depends on the physician on call with you. If he wants to work, you work. That aside, there are always emergencies. Friday night, about eleven, we were called in for what's known as an S-T elevated myocardial infarction, a heart attack. The patient was young, under fifty, and had chest pains for the last three days. Now we come to the dumbass part. Forget that the entire time the fella had chest pains, he continued to smoke his two and a half packs a day. Let's focus on the family. After boo hooing because their father/brother/husband/son was in a serious condition and after being told that he was stable after having multiple stents placed in the arteries of his heart but he still may have to have his chest cracked, I overheard this conversation in the elevator while taking the stretcher back to the ER.

Mom - "Thank God he is going to be alright. He told me he was going to quit smoking now."

Brother - "Yeah, I'm sure it was the cigarettes that caused him all of this trouble."

Son - "Well, he has had his last one, no more for him. Who wants to get some breakfast?"

Wife - "That sounds good. I'm pretty hungry, but I want to smoke first. Anybody else?"

They all made sounds in the affirmative and followed her outside.

I guess it hits home for me because my step-Dad had open heart a couple of years ago. He lost his Dad and couple of his brothers to heart disease. Post-op, his doctor had a discussion with him. He didn't tell him to eat right or exercise. The doctor didn't harp on his cholesterol levels or his genetic predisposition for heart disease. He looked straight at him and said "If you don't stop smoking, you will die."

My siblings and I suspect that step-Dad still smokes. I know he has struggled with it. He smoked his entire life, from the time he was thirteen. But I have personally seen his sisters blow smoke in his face while telling him that he has to quit. Mom (long since divorced from step-Dad) is a heavy smoker and subscribes to the denial/conspiracy theory. She will tell me to my face that smoking isn't detrimental. That it doesn't cause heart disease, emphysema, cancer, low birth weights, or peripheral vascular disease. When I bring up research to the contrary (I mean, I learned SOMETHING in nursing school, right?), she then flips over to some garbage about the government or a left wing organization trying to paint tobacco in a poor light for their own political/monetary reasons. I haven't called her a dumbass to her face, but I've thought it.

I have a little more respect for those that say, "I smoke, I know it's bad for me, may even kill me, but I like it." At least they are grounded in reality. I dunno, obviously I'm not a smoker, so I can only guess how powerful the addiction is. I do know that I finally told step-Dad "You have been told, you have been warned. I'm going to miss you, but I can't be very sympathetic because you can't breathe." Then I topped it with "Your grand-kids are gonna miss you."

Call me cruel.