Charades: The Emergency Department Edition

Coming into one of the local Emergency Departments a few minutes ago:

Triage Nurse:: [raises eyebrows questioningly]

Ambulance Driver: [clutches chest dramatically, indicating a patient with chest pain]

TN: [cocks one eyebrow skeptically, indicating disbelief that our 22-year-old patient is actually suffering from an acute coronary syndrome]

AD: [makes drinking motion with one hand, followed by back of hand to forehead theatrically, indicating a drunk female patient with Status Dramaticus]

TN: [peers musingly at status board, presumably looking for available beds]

AD: [clears throat, then looks significantly at a nearly empty ED, as if to say, “Dude, really?”]

TN: [sighs in resignation, then points in general direction of cardiac telemetry beds]

AD: [raises eyebrows questioningly]

TN: [growls and points more emphatically]

AD: [turns and scans the row of available beds, then looks at Triage Nurse questioningly, as if to say, “Which one?”]

TN: [shrugs diffidently, as if to say, “Pick one.”]

AD: [smiling innocently, but not moving, because I can’t resist twisting Triage Nurse’s tail every now and then]

TN: [gesturing forcefully toward the first bed in the row]

AD: [striking my best Saturday Night Fever pose]

TN: [gesticulating frantically like a flight deck controller fighting a lightsaber duel with an invisible Darth Vader]

AD: [doing the YMCA]

TN: “OH FOR PETE’S SAKE, PUT HER IN TELEMETRY FOUR!”

AD: “You know what’s wrong with you people? No sense of whimsy, that’s what.”