{"id":1106,"date":"2025-10-05T10:47:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepatientiwillalwaysremember.wordpress.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2025-10-05T10:47:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:47:46","slug":"the-whiskey-scent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/?p=1106","title":{"rendered":"The Whiskey Scent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was three o\u2019clock on a Saturday morning in the autumn of 2006 when the phone rang.
I had unexpectedly taken over the night shift from a colleague who had \u201cthrown his back out\u201d fixing something on his farmhouse that evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d gone out for dinner to celebrate something \u2014 I can\u2019t recall what exactly. Only that the wine had been excellent, and that I might have had a glass or two more than usual. That happens to me once or twice a year \u2014 though only when I\u2019m not on call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those days, Dutch newspapers were full of stories about \u201ccoma drinking\u201d<\/em> \u2014 young teenagers ending up in hospital with alcohol intoxication. Even in our small town in Friesland, far from the big cities, the trend had reached us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nurse on duty called:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a 15-year-old boy brought in from the disco. Found unconscious. His friends say they only had a few drinks \u2014 not much at all. Oh, and his mother is on her way. She didn\u2019t sound pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I got dressed with a headache and very little enthusiasm and drove to the hospital.
The boy was lying in the admissions room on the paediatric ward. His mother had arrived before me \u2014 she hadn\u2019t taken time to brush her hair. She looked angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I examined the boy. Deeply unconscious. The air around the bed smelled strongly of whisky.
His mother demanded an explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cDronken? Impossible! He might have had two beers at most. My son doesn\u2019t drink. You must be mistaken, doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t have a quick breath test like the police. The blood test for alcohol would take until Monday.
So I pointed out the vomit stains on his clothes, and the unmistakable smell of spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t smell anything,\u201d she said sharply. \u201cPerhaps you<\/em> have been drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I decided not to argue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wheeled the boy to the ward to sleep it off. When I returned, his mother had fallen asleep in a chair beside one of the friends.
I asked the friend again \u2014 \u201cJust two beers?\u201d
He nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cYeah, just two. But when we picked him up, he\u2019d already been drinking at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The mother started snoring loudly. I took a step closer to her. The whisky smell was still there \u2014 strongest now from her direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was three o\u2019clock on a Saturday morning in the autumn of 2006 when the phone rang.I had unexpectedly taken over the night shift from a colleague who had \u201cthrown his back out\u201d fixing something on his farmhouse that evening. We\u2019d gone out for dinner to celebrate something \u2014 I can\u2019t recall what exactly. Only that the wine had been excellent, and that I might have had a glass or two more than usual. That happens to me once or twice a year \u2014 though only when I\u2019m not on call. In those days, Dutch newspapers were full of stories about \u201ccoma drinking\u201d \u2014 young teenagers ending up in hospital with alcohol intoxication. Even in our small town in Friesland, far from the big cities, the trend had reached us. The nurse on duty called: \u201cWe\u2019ve got a 15-year-old boy brought in from the disco. Found unconscious. His friends say they only had a few drinks \u2014 not much at all. Oh, and his mother is on her way. She didn\u2019t sound pleased.\u201d I got dressed with a headache and very little enthusiasm and drove to the hospital.The boy was lying in the admissions room on the paediatric ward. His mother had arrived before me \u2014 she hadn\u2019t taken time to brush her hair. She looked angry. I examined the boy. Deeply unconscious. The air around the bed smelled strongly of whisky.His mother demanded an explanation. \u201cDronken? Impossible! He might have had two beers at most. My son doesn\u2019t drink. You must be mistaken, doctor.\u201d We didn\u2019t have a quick breath test like the police. The blood test for alcohol would take until Monday.So I pointed out the vomit stains on his clothes, and the unmistakable smell of spirits. \u201cI don\u2019t smell anything,\u201d she said sharply. \u201cPerhaps you have been drinking.\u201d I decided not to argue. We wheeled the boy to the ward to sleep it off. When I returned, his mother had fallen asleep in a chair beside one of the friends.I asked the friend again \u2014 \u201cJust two beers?\u201dHe nodded. \u201cYeah, just two. But when we picked him up, he\u2019d already been drinking at home.\u201d The mother started snoring loudly. I took a step closer to her. The whisky smell was still there \u2014 strongest now from her direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,7,12,14,19,25],"class_list":["post-1106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alcohol","tag-family","tag-life","tag-medical","tag-short-story","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}