Yesterday, I had a new experience as a nurse…. I was bitten by a patient.

I was team leading (same as a relief charge nurse) & helping another nurse admit a patient to the ICU from the cath lab. He was in his 50s, had a heart attack, and the lesion was successfully opened and stented by the cardiologist. This patient was spanish-speaking (surprisingly, something we don’t see in my area of Phoenix as often as you’d think) and he was waking up from sedation very wildly – thrashing all over the bed and trying to sit up. I was holding one of his arms down, and the other nurse was on his other side, because he still had a sheath (big IV access) in his groin and if he sat up, he would run the risk of severe bleeding. We were attempting to get him to calm down, when he pulled his arm (the one I was holding) up to his face and bit my arm. I pulled away quickly and used my other hand on his forehead to keep it on the pillow.

Two more male staff members came into the room to help us physically restrain the patient (now for our safety as well as his own). We then called for security and the house supervisors to come to the room and the patient was placed in restraints and his sedation from the procedure kicked back in.

I know that there were many variables that act as excuses for this patient to act how he did (language barriers, confusion from sedatives), but there was a spanish-speaking staff member in the room while the patient was acting out and the patient was fully aware of what was going on. He knew that he was in the hospital and remembered coming to the emergency room with chest pain. If a person is awake enough to realize these things, I think there is no real excuse for actions like that. I’m sure it’s hard being in that situation – not knowing what exactly is going on and having people trying to restrain you, but to lash out and bite someone when you willingly came into the hospital for help is inexcusable.

Situations like these make me weary of getting as close to patients as we often have to. But, my two options as a nurse are to 1) attempt to restrain him and put myself in danger, or 2) let him do what he wants, which would cause a life-threatening bleed from his artery onto the bed or into his abdomen.

What’s a nurse to do?