I Got Fired for Helping a Man with Dementia, but a Pair of Shoes Proved I Made the Right Choice Fired for helping a confused elderly man with dementia who believed his sneakers were “running away,” I thought my compassion had cost me everything. But when the head nurse claimed my actions as her own, those runaway shoes unraveled her lies in the most unexpected way.
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After three months at the clinic, I’d gotten used to Karen’s eagle eyes following my every move. As head nurse, she seemed to take particular delight in finding fault with everything I did.
A woman in scrubs yelling in a hospital hallway | Source: Midjourney
I’d just try to shrug it off and keep going. It wasn’t like this was my dream job.
My real passion had always been geriatric care — I’d even completed several advanced courses in the field — but here I was, dodging Karen’s criticisms like verbal bullets while trying to maintain my professionalism.
“Your charts are sloppy again, Pam,” she’d say, or “That’s not how we do things here, Pam.” Her voice always carried that hint of satisfaction, like she was collecting evidence for some future confrontation.
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A woman holding a clipboard yelling at someone | Source: Midjourney
The evening that everything changed started badly and got worse.
The coffee machine was broken, leaving everyone caffeine-deprived and irritable. I was running on fumes after a 12-hour shift, and my night shift replacement had called to say she was stuck in traffic on the highway.
“I’ll be at least another hour,” she’d apologized over the phone. “There’s been an accident.”
I was gathering my things, ready to bolt as soon as she arrived, when an elderly man shuffled through the doors.
An elderly man standing in a hospital | Source: Midjourney
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He wore a perfectly pressed suit that somehow made him look lost, like he’d wandered out of another time entirely.
“Excuse me, sir, can I help you?” I asked.
“There’s a… a… my shoes are untied.” He looked me right in the eye. “Can you tie them for me, Margaret?”
Something was very wrong. My shift had ended, but there was no way I could leave this man standing there, obviously confused, and alone.
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