I have one. I had a patient in an IMC unit. ETOH withdrawel with no cardiac hx. Of course had not been to a Dr. for 40 yrs. Thank God he was on a monitor.
I was walking down the hall to check on him when my beeper went off and was showing V tach. I walked in the room with a colleague and looked at him...he looked purple. I told the other Nurse to turn on the light and sure enough he was in Vtach and down. I threw the head of his bed down and started CPR. I told the other Nurse to get the ambu bag. She left me and never came back...she ran down the hall to tell the other Nurses I needed help. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!!! So I did chest compressions and yelled for help...thank GOD another Nurse came running in with the ambu bag. Anyway...we coded him...shocked him, transferred him to CCU. He coded again several times. I had a pretty good repore with his family (sons) so I called his one son and told him he needed to come now.
I had not heard anything later that evening or the next day...I thought he died since his son never came back to talk with me.
About 2 weeks later I was coming out of the stock closet at the beginning of my shift, when a man came up to me and said "Remember me?" I said vaguely (he was the second son and I did not have much contact with him) He said, "I need to show you something". He took me in the room, and behold,...there was my patient sitting up in bed. As soon as he smiled at me I started crying. That never happened to me before. I couldn't believe it. He said " You're the one that broke my ribs?" I said, probably.
I really thought he had died.
He thanked me and we talked about "this being his second chance." He said he would never touch etoh again. I lost track of him after discharge.
I think of this story often, and it helps.
The following members say Thank You: