Saturday, September 13, 2008

Regretful...

We had this patient in the CCU. His diagnosis was complicated though he was a fun and dear patient. Two nights ago, during our shift, we were having a hard time inserting an IV site for his blood line. He was edematous which made it hard for us to make a line. Despite of that, he was really cooperative and allowed us to make attempts. He was very talkative and had a sense of humor as well. The nurse on duty successfully inserted an IV site and hooked it up with a PNSS.

Surprisingly, the next morning, he was intubated due to congestion and during our PM shift, he died due to massive bleeding, he was having a melena. It was sudden and we all felt sad about it.



1 comment:

durano lawayan a.k.a. brad spit said...

HI Crissy,

I'm sorry about your patient. It's difficult really when those who are part of saving lives lose anyone under their care, especially one where a connection with the person has been made.

I'm not with the medical profession but I experience the same things lots of times.Working in remote communities, in our country or other parts of the world, we get to interact closely with its people. Sometimes we lose them because of the advanced stage of the disease they acquired as a result of starvation, or they get an illness like dengue where there is no means to medicate them well because of distance. In other occasions, we lose them to bullets or land mines.

It's sad and heartbreaking, and we can see at close range the impact on the family and the community. We console ourselves by telling ourselves to count our victories over the losses.

This is what I'm saying to you now, count your victories - the successful ones - over your part in the failures. This could give you a small boost, although deep down, we both know, its really not the same. A loss is a loss. :-) --Durano, done!