It's a Small World

Lately my work has been divided between two prisons, the EOLC and an older facility about an hour away. A couple of weeks ago I was at the older place checking in an inmate who had just returned from an appointment with a specialist. Each time an inmate arrives at a facility his chart has to be reviewed and he gets a quick "interview" to make sure all his needs are met and he is okay. So I was going over the checklist with this inmate, asking a few questions. One of them is "are you feeling suicidal?" and the next, "have you attempted suicide in the past?" He answered no and yes, then went on to explain that ever since he received massive head trauma at the ***** unit in '93 he had experienced suicidal ideations. I asked him how he had received these injuries and he said during a riot he was beaten so severely that he had essentially lost 4 years of memory, suffered from seizures and mental problems. I then asked him if he remembered anything about that night. He said no, but had been told that the care he received there had saved his life. He started explaining that he had been care flighted to a larger hospital and he spent four months in a coma. I then told him that I was the first nurse to touch him when they carried him in from the rec yard on a sheet, blood dripping from every orifice, face swollen beyond recognition. I remember stepping into the treatment room, after having spent several hours locked in the pill room, and being absolutely unsure what to do next. I had only graduated from nursing school a week before. Luckily my partner was right behind me, exclaiming "holy shit"! The only way to identify this guy was by his digging in his blood soaked shirt pocket and locating his ID card. I had long since forgotten his name but never the image of his swollen, bloody, broken face or the feeling of my fingers sinking into his broken skull as I attempted to control the bleeding from his head.
He thanked me profusely. He asked if I ever talked to any of the other medical staff from that night. I told him that one of the nurses is my life long friend and that I occasionally talk to some of the others, he said please tell them thank you, I would be dead without you guys.
He also told me that the inmate that started the riot is housed at that unit. I can really do without seeing him.
One day last week I had an interview for a full time position at a very small prison near my home. As I was getting out of my car another nurse was walking across the parking lot. She offered to walk me in. As we were walking and talking we passed a group of inmates and one said "hey Ms. ********, how are you? Do you remember me from the ***** unit?" I nodded yes, even though I had no idea who he was. What got me was that he had not seen me in 9 years and after just catching a glimpse of me as I passed, he could not only remember the unit, but my name.