Danger

As I sit and listen to the police scanner at work, I find the gang violence at its peak tonight. Someone lost his life, and another is in the hospital across the street. The family members were gathered around the emergency entrance, but the officers couldn’t let them all in. Then, as I continued to listen, a house was shot up in retaliation. Pray for this town that I have grown to love. The streets of Chattanooga get pretty bad sometimes. I think it may be easier to listen to the patients instead of the scanner sometimes. Yesterday was a busy day here. They were passing away as fast as they were arriving. 5 of them, today we only lost 1. Oh well, it will be time to go home soon. A new day is dawning, and the calls to the police are slowing down. Thank God the shooting has stopped for the night. 2 days ago, the shooting only cause 1 injury. Tonight, they were not so lucky. From what I understand, it was the bloods that lost a member tonight. I hate to see the retaliation that will follow. Pray for this city. The nights are getting dangerous.

I guess I could specify for those who don’t know, I work in a hospice facility, and we have people dying every day. Some days, we get patients from hospitals that are so close to death that the transition from the hospital to the facility is just too stressful for the patients. Some last only minutes, some may last a few hours. I don’t understand why they move them when they are so close to death. Some say that the hospitals want to keep their mortality rate down, and if they die here, it doesn’t count against the hospital. To me, it just seems cruel. But then again, once they are here, they can be made comfortable and hopefully die a peaceful, pain-free death. If their families will let that happen. We had someone here last week who was in obvious pain, yet the family members would not let the nurses give them their meds. How can someone know their loved one is in pain, yet not allow pain medication. To me, that is sadistic and cruel. But, it’s out of my hands. Only God knows why they would want to watch a loved one, that they proclaim to love, suffer. Oh well, that is why I now listen to the police scanners. The pain outside these doors is easier to deal with than the pain down the hall sometimes.