It's all i ever wanted really,
the possibility of fixed stars.
Syahila, 20.
Once you lose yourself, you have two choices. Find the person you used to be or lose that person completely.
Traumatized
Saturday, January 24, 2009, 6:36 PM
It was the last day of my surgical posting and I encountered something strange with one of my patients. An elderly malay lady wasn't her usual self during dinnertime. When told to eat, she didn't respond and just looked out of the window. When she responds, I couldn't make out the words she said. When we tried to move her, her body was all so tensed and she was trembling. So, my friend and I alerted the staff nurse and informed the doctor on call.The doctor came and I helped to assess the patient. She was disorientated and probably hallucinating cos she was saying a troop of army was coming towards her and she kept facing the corridor. All of a sudden, she threw a fit and it lasted for a few seconds. So the doctor told me to do an ECG for her, bloods were taken and continous oxygen saturation was monitored. Already, the ECG was showing abnormalities. Her heart rate was 240 beats per minute and this is not normal cos normal heart rate is 60-100 beats per minute. At this point of time, she was still disorientated and kept saying that there were many people coming towards her.
Minutes later, she started moving around, her eyes were rolling up and she looks as tho she's gonna vommit but no, she was somehow gasping for air. I shook her hard and asked in malay what did she see and there wasn't any response. She was still gasping for air. The doctor shouted for an E-trolley and Code Blue was activated. I quickly removed those ECG leads on her and backed off. More doctors and staff nurses came and did resuscitation. At this point of time, I was very scared and started to tear cos I have the feeling she's gonna be taken away. Another friend of mine also thinks so. It was very chaotic.
After resuscitation was done and injection was given, she was a little alert and drowsy. She was immediately transferred to the ICU.
So when everything was over, the doctor asked if it was our first time seeing such things and he explained to us what the lady was experiencing. The nice thing was he thanked us for helping him and he got reprimanded for not capturing the real abnormality in the ECG.
I felt satisfied in the end cos had it not been for my friend and I who alerted the staff nurse, the patient will suffer in silence. Somehow, we kinda saved her life. It was an experience and come to think of it, nursing is an interesting profession. You'll get to see many things that others don't get to see and that's the best part. What you get is job satisfaction.
Wonder what kind of staff nurse I'll become...