Monday, February 18, 2013

Post Mortem

There I was, going up the ramp, panting and sweating, nasal flaring, ripped jeans, skin was showing... lol... damn it, Paul, pull yourself together.

The day of me being a nurse was supposed to start at 7 in the morning, I received my nocturnal shift nurse at 7:30 am. I came early but I had to fix my hair and all so that's it. Nurses should be prim and proper upon greeting the patients. Upon endorsing the patients' meds to me, at exactly 8:15 am, the horrible thing happened. There was a code blue.

A code blue is a sign in which hospitals used to signal an impending or during an arrest of a patient. All nurses or mostly majority of the nurses should be on the bedside to assist the doctor in any way to revive the patient i.e., intubate, CPR, etc.

The patient was a 87-year-old male who has long been a stroke patient. Beside his almost lifeless body was his children, three of them, actually holding his feet and stroking it hoping to resurrect him. I wasn't there but my hands were ready for any drugs that can be used for reviving.

Cardiac monitors whooshed immediately to his side to check his heart rhythm but it was now close to a flat line. Everything inside the room was quiet except for the beeping of the device and the hissing of his 10-liter-per-minute regulation of the oxygen tank. Yes, due to his suppressed lungs, he needed that huge amount. The Resident Doctor on duty auscultated for any breathing sounds or wheezes but to no avail.

Sadly, his pulse stopped bouncing and both of his hands thudded from his chest grasping for air on the side of the bed. Simultaneously, the long sound of a flat line was heard on the machine. He's dead.

He was then pronounced later that time.

Post mortem was made by one of the nurses.

I wasn't of any help that day.


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