The patient, a homeless man with substance abuse problems, had been hit by a car and was taken to a hospital for treatment. Upon discharge, he went back to the woods, where he'd been living. Three days later, he returned to the hospital. This time, the ambulance crew stuffed him into a body bag because he was covered with his own feces. "He was alive, but he had no ability to care for himself," said Donna J. Biederman, an associate professor at the Duke University School of Nursing.
