- Just like any other day, I walked into the hospital, punched the time clock, and chatted with my elevator neighbor on my way up to my unit. Then unlike any other day I saw a seasoned nurse run out of the room. The only intelligible word I heard was “CODE.” I ran. Entering the room I flung my lunch box on the counter and tossed my coat to wherever it would land. Approaching the bed I saw a person much younger than myself, I started chest compressions.
- The code cart was rushed in and the defibrillator pads were put on this young human. I continued compressions. Sometime in all of this I noticed the spouse looking on in horror. I told them as directly and compassionately as I could to leave the room. The patient was shocked per ACLS protocol. After a few more interventions the patient was rushed to a bed in critical care.
- When I found that I was more in the way than helpful, I left the room. Finding the spouse I apologized for asking them to leave and possible scaring them. I consoled them as best I could and left them head in hands sobbing.
- The reality is that this pateint would have probably died if they were at home or ended up with serious brain damage. The reality is that this person was not yet thirty and the parent of young children. The reality is that every patient is important no matter the age or apparent status of health. The reality is that life is fragile.
- A while later, I sat in the break room with our unit’s charge nurse and chatted about the event. We discussed how that in moments like these wealth, status, education, and appearance are paltry. Just ask the young spouse whose life and kid’s sudden uncertain future spiraled through their thoughts in that terrifying moment.
- Consider the lilies.
,
Thoughtful Stuff
This entry was posted
on April 16, 2008 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Nursing, Thoughtful Stuff.
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