Is he or is he not...
The day began like a normal morning in our busy ER. I had Ben, a student nurse, working with me, and we were taking care of two patients having difficulty breathing. While we were examining one of our patients, I noticed I was getting an ambulance patient in my open room. I debated whether we should finish the exam or go right away, and decided to go check out the new kid then return to finish our exam. “Adolescent male, postictal after his fifth seizure today,” the EMS woman told me. I watched as they transferred the boy from the stretcher to the bed. He didn’t react at all. Most kids at least appear startled during the transfer. Ben and I walked over to the patient. His skin was pink but he wasn’t reacting to us or responding to painful stimuli. We placed him on monitors and they immediately started alarming. His oxygen saturation was 81%. “Is he breathing!?” I shouted. EMS quickly answered, “Don’t worry, he’s just postictal.” Ben and I stood there examining him, and Ben was the first to speak. “I really don’t think he’s breathing.” I agreed, and had the tech overhead page for help while we started grabbing the airway equipment. Within seconds we had a respiratory therapist, pharmacist, and two attending doctors at the bedside. They started shouting out what felt like hundreds of orders while the respiratory therapist was bagging the patient. Within minutes we had the patient in the critical care room for intubation. As I was giving report to the critical care nurse, I saw Ben peeking in from the hallway. I motioned for him to come stand with me. I was expecting him to be reluctant to enter the room- it’s an intimidating place with all the doctors and machines, but Ben was at my side immediately. An ER nurse is born, I thought to myself. We went back to our assignment and began deciphering my notes so we could chart on the insanity that had just occurred. While we were standing there, Ben said, “That was so cool! I definitely want to be an ER nurse!” I was still shaking slightly and had been fighting the urge to vomit. I think I prefer my patients when they are breathing!
No comments:
Post a Comment