What Would Jackie Do?

Season 3 of "Nurse Jackie" begins tonight on Showtime and to honor our favorite emergency room nurse we have a little story about another emergency room in New York and a real one at that.

In August of 2009 a homeless man named Dan Iverson showed up at Roosevelt Hospital's ER saying he had just consumed mass quantities of morphine and was tired of living. A nurse named Danna Novak noted he was 'emergent,' but another nurse said Iverson was just faking something as usual. Apparently he routinely wheeled himself to the hospital with his prosthetic leg in his lap, looking for a safe haven or whatever.

Allegedly Iverson listened to the exchange between the nurses and then wheeled himself out of the hospital. The next morning his cold dead body was discovered outside the hospital by a hot dog vendor. An autopsy showed he had morphine, alcohol and sedatives in his system. Novak now claims she was fired from the hospital because she exposed the case of the chronic abuser being refused health care, would not quit and was fired. The hospital claims she was fired because she left patients unattended.

We are patiently waiting for Iverson's family to bring suit against the hospital for his death. If Mr. Iverson was really tired of living he wouldn't have bothered to go to the hospital. Clearly, it was a cry for help. That's what Nurse Jackie would say and then she'd go snort some Oxy.