patient encounter 5:" God bless you"

I pulled a chair close to his bed and just sat there. Both of us, engulfed in silence. He was the first to speak," What can I do for you?" He asked. I was wondering about the same question. I was passing by this patient's room in the ICU, when one of the Nurses called me to tell me that, Mr. K as I will call him, was being rude to the Nurses and very abuse. Showing signs of combativeness and clearly, just trouble making. He was a 29 year old man who had been rescued from Suicide by Overdose on some prescription medications and He was annoyed and angry at everyone who participated in the decision to revive him because he believed that he should have been left to die as he had earlier planned. I listened to him. He vented his problems, anger and frustrations. He asked me If I was going to say anything or I was just going to keep quiet. That's when I seized the opprotunity and I told him that I thought he was a good man making very wrong choices. I asked him about his children, if he had any.( I did not know this patient before). He had Two. 4 year old and a 6 year old. " You do not want your children to go through life thinking that they are the ones that drove you to commit suicide. They will definately miss you and You may not realise but you are the only hero they may know in their young lives.You are selfish for not wanting to share the love of a father with your lovely children. Life throws at each one of us some challanges but running away from them is escapism and you drag your loved ones with you. Your life may be more valuable than you actually think it is." He started crying. He said NO ONE in his entire life had ever told him things from the perspective that I was informing him. He said he would behave himself and will not try to Kill himself again.That remains to be seen but what was immediately evident is that he stopped harrassment of the Nurses on the floor and threatening that he was going to commit suicide. We still involved the Psychiatrists who came and cleared him to go home as they did not find him at risk for suicide. I stood up to leave the room and he called me by name and said," God Bless you".