Yesterday at work another nurse's patient stopped breathing and her heart stopped.
The code was called overhead and I and another nurse ran in there to start chest compressions and start giving her oxygen via a breathing bag.
It was the same routine as other codes I had been in at my old job in Utah. Interesting.
The patient looked the same as all the other patients that code--head hyperextended backward, face limp and purplish, body flailing up and down with each chest compression, lifeless....
you start to think about the patient, the kind of life she might have led, making up what her husband and kids are doing right now, how they're going to react when they find out about their dear wife and mother. You also start to think about what her spirit must be doing right now. It must be watching this happen from above, Heavenly Father too...
She didn't make it. She was pretty sick.
Her husband had left to eat some lunch a little bit before she coded and came back toward the end. We sat him down on a chair in the hallway and the hospital chaplain came to talk to him.
His eyes were red, they were to be married 60 years this month.
"If only I had stayed....if only I had stayed....." he kept repeating.
The part that was different this time was that they weren't married in the temple, they weren't LDS, and they hadn't been lucky enough to make covenants and be promised a beautiful forever with each other.
Different.
Life's short. Tell people you love them. Compliment others. Do what makes you happy.
I will thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteugh.. Make me cry why don't ya!! Honestly!! lol.. Ben sees a lot of the same stuff and comes home with stories similiar to that. Things like that are definitely testimony strentheners. Makes me grateful for the knowledge that we have and the covenants we've made.
ReplyDeleteIt's a humbling experience and I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ to help find comfort in those situations. Thanks for this post, it's a sweet reminder to be grateful for the blessings we have.
ReplyDeleteMiss you, hope you're loving Cali
very well put. death brings great truths about life and eternity...good reminders. thanks=)
ReplyDeleteso sad! :( I don't know how you deal with all the codes you do! reminds me of when a patient on our floor coded and how hysterical the wife went. really grateful we can be in a profession that reminds us of these things.
ReplyDelete