Have you ever witnessed a Miracle?

[BostonTerrierLover]

With all Respect to the Allnurses crew, I hope this doesn't get moved to the Spirituality section, because I'm truly not approaching this from "just" a spiritual standpoint.

I want it where all sorts of Nurses from different walks can respond.

Have you ever witnessed something that took your breath away on the clock? Maybe it was a small miracle, but you never forgot it. But nothing medical or scientific could explain it. Or maybe it could, but yet the odds were against it totally?

Tell me about it.

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

I have and miracles are what keep me going sometimes.My patient for the day was a 3 week old former 24 weeker with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). He was septic as well. He may have weighed 2 pounds. We were getting KUBs every 4 hours, because his bowel walls were getting thinner and thinner. I sat in his room with his parents all day, they had no idea how grave the situation was. If his bowel would have perforated he would have had to go to surgery but he was septic so it would be dangerous, if the surgeon felt surgery was doable. I stayed 16 hours that day. The last KUB was stable.I went home and came back the next day. His KUBs stayed stable. He ended up not perffing. That is a miracle. In the 2 months before he came we had 3 babies come with NEC ( we are referral NICU) two of the babies were so sick that they didn't make it. I was so scared for this baby, we had the code cart parked outside his room.He slowly got better and when he left his bowel was perfect. His mama just brought him in to see me. He is 3 now. I told her this visit what a miracle he is. He gave me a hug, it made my day.

[kids]

I've been a nurse for more than 20 years.

Several years ago I worked in a facility on a sub-acute rehab unit that was well known in the community for taking complex patients from the hospitals and getting them strong/well enough to transfer to the top in-patient rehab facility in the region.

We got this 20ish year old kid who head injuries in a MVA in which everyone else suffered non-life threatening injuries.

He was life flighted to a level I trauma center that is renowned for it's neuroscience program. If you have a serious head injury in the Pacific NW, this is the place you want to be taken.

It so happened that the neuro on duty the afternoon the kid came in was the dept chair.

I remember his CT scan describing his ventricles as being 'obliterated' and 'massive hemorrhage'. His exams and imaging results were full of terms like 'catastrophic', 'incompatible with life', 'futile' and 'evidence of impending herniation'. For the life of me I can't remember if they put in a bolt but I clearly recall that he was not taken to surgery.

He was sent to the neuro ICU overnight for palliative care while his parents made a decision to donate his organs.

The next morning he wasn't any worse, in fact...he seemed a little better.

A repeat CT was done and his ventricles were freaking clear, his ICP readings were still elevated but there was no sign of herniation.

I'm not an especially spiritual person and I'm not much of a believer in miracles as over the years I've seen (more than) my fair share of "miracles" that were only such in the eyes of the family. *But* when a neuroscience chair documents, in a patient's chart, the words "nothing short of a miracle"... I believe it is one.

He was only with us for a short time, we shipped him off to the intensive program in record time.

A year or so later there was a little blurb about him in the newspaper.

He'd made a near-full recovery and had resumed his life as he had originally planned it (college, etc).

[Little Panda RN, ASN, RN]

That's exactly what I thought....and then I thought a Guillain Barre like syndrome? But botulism is a great thought.I was working as clinical supervisor when I heard my most dreaded sound at 3 am....Code Blue L/D. It was because of a prime ip with failure to progress so the Nurse Practitioner/Midwife ruptured her membranes. Almost immediately she felt SOB, became anxious and tachycardic. She suddenly complained of sharp chest pain and proceeded to have a seizure. She became apnic and pulseless all with in a matter of minutes. There happened to be an OB/GYN in house when we paged for any surgeon in the house to OB as there was still a fetal heart rate. There "happened" to be the OR and anesthesia in the house as they just finished an happy. We rushed her to the OR coding her all the way (remember feeling horrible for her husband who was ashen and just crying quietly in the corner completely forgotten about)The section was performed the baby was born in distress/meconium and finally a heart rate returned but she went into DIC. She was transferred from the OR to the ICU (much to the ICU nurses Dismay) She was fixed and dilated hopefully from epi and the drugs. The whole time I just kept thinking...Oh God please!76 units of blood, blood products later we were trying to stabilize her to fly her out, it was already 8am.... I noticed her hands tapping the bed. I looked down and I saw her looking at me and she mouthed the words "Where's my Baby?" as tears ran down her cheeks.Mother and baby went home several weeks later from town and the last I heard the baby started kindergarten last September.

This made me cry and thank God!!!!

[%63theend]

I graduate in July and have been seriously considering working in the special care nursery. It made an impression on me during my OB rotation. This thread really pushes me even more to want to be a part of it.

As for witnessing miracles, I have witnessed one but I was so small I don't really remember it all that well. My cousin was born in 1981 at Northside hospital in Atlanta at a gestation so premature that babies born at that gestation even today don't have a usually survive (I'd include it but I want to verify the weeks before I post it). The doctors told my aunt and uncle their son, my cousin, would not survive and to say goodbye to him. I don't know all of the specifics as I was very young at the time but there are pictures of my cousin wearing my uncle's wedding ring on his WRIST like a bracelet he was so tiny. He fit in the palm of my uncle's hand. All of the pictures have tubes coming out of him everywhere. Well he is an adult now and although he was very small throughout school, he caught up in growth and is now around 6'1. He had no mental delays at all an graduated college top of his class. I have tried to ask my aunt if there is any way at all her dates could have been off and she adamantly claims her dates were correct. In any event just based on pictures it is clear he was very premature. I don't remember how much he weighed but I think I remember it was under a pound. No one at the hospital could believe it when he survived!

[champagnesupeRNova]

That's exactly what I thought....and then I thought a Guillain Barre like syndrome? But botulism is a great thought.

I was working as clinical supervisor when I heard my most dreaded sound at 3 am....Code Blue L/D. It was because of a prime ip with failure to progress so the Nurse Practitioner/Midwife ruptured her membranes. Almost immediately she felt SOB, became anxious and tachycardic. She suddenly complained of sharp chest pain and proceeded to have a seizure. She became apnic and pulseless all with in a matter of minutes.

There happened to be an OB/GYN in house when we paged for any surgeon in the house to OB as there was still a fetal heart rate. There "happened" to be the OR and anesthesia in the house as they just finished an happy. We rushed her to the OR coding her all the way (remember feeling horrible for her husband who was ashen and just crying quietly in the corner completely forgotten about)

The section was performed the baby was born in distress/meconium and finally a heart rate returned but she went into DIC. She was transferred from the OR to the ICU (much to the ICU nurses Dismay) She was fixed and dilated hopefully from epi and the drugs. The whole time I just kept thinking...Oh God please!

76 units of blood, blood products later we were trying to stabilize her to fly her out, it was already 8am.... I noticed her hands tapping the bed. I looked down and I saw her looking at me and she mouthed the words "Where's my Baby?" as tears ran down her cheeks.

Mother and baby went home several weeks later from town and the last I heard the baby started kindergarten last September.

This is amazing! And well-told

[umcRN, BSN, RN]

umcrn: did they check him for botulism? somebody might have given him a little honey, which, of course, has botulism spores in it. after age 12 months or so, not a problem, but permeable gut before that means honey is a no-no. saw one of those once.

it's been awhile since this was posted but i just saw it. you know i have no idea. i don't think he ever was tested for that but i can't remember exactly. guess we'll never know now

how quick is the recovery from that? because while he has about recovered fully (still has some hypotonia, uses braces now that he is learning to walk) he had a very slow recovery, he used a vent for almost a year and he didn't sit up until he was about a year old, it took quite a while for him to get his muscle strength back with intense pt/ot

[NO50FRANNY]

Wow Sharpie Mom, Viva and Cape Cod....what amazing stories. Purple in scrubs....I about peed my pants when I looked down and saw her looking at me. I called out Th=ot the MD's at the station and I saw them roll their eyes as they got up and came to the room. The look of utter disbelief on their faces was very satisfying. I remember packing her to fly out and she pulled on my jacket and mouthed the words "Thank you".....we all sobbed as she left from exhaustion and relief.

I will NEVER forget that moment for the rest of my life.

Cried like a baby when I read your story, so wonderful.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

i LOVE THIS THREAD!

Reading between all the (very inspiring) lines.... Miracles aren't always big 'burning bush' events. I believe that they are all around us. They are evidence of the presence of something beyond human intervention, however you attribute it. What about those times when you 'just know' what to do even though there's very little to go on. The wordless communication between you and the "non responsive" patient you are caring for. It is the enduring belief that we are all contributing to a greater good that is beyond the ability of any one of us to accomplish.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

I have had two pediatric patients that coded and I cared for them shortly after. They had been normal and now they were neuro devastated, moaning, non-purposeful moments, requiring sitters to not toss themselves out of bed. One was also having severe neuro storms. I cared for one of them just once when they were on my unit but saw they were on the unit for weeks. One day I was getting report and was stunned to see the child riding in a wheelchair down the hall smiling and waving at the nurses. I said, "Hi, Patient'sname! Wow you look great today!" Patient said back, "Hi! Thank you!." Last I heard they were in rehab and walking with assistance. The other one I heard went back to their hometown and went back to school and resumed sports activities they had been doing before the code with a big welcome from the school!

While they are not totally unexplainable miracles, it was amazing to grieve for the loss of who these children once were and then to see them come back again so totally. We get so many sad cases on my unit-- and most of the kids do have severe brain injuries either from hypoxic event or trauma-- and by far most of them never are even close to what they were before. Many go home in persistent vegetative states. So to see one patient literally talk to me and look me in the eye was so amazing.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

2 month old brought in for failure to thrive. Over the next few weeks he deteriorated: could not drink from a bottle, stopped being able to move his little body, he came in an almost normal infant and very quickly was a little wet noodle - no muscle tone at all. Ultimately he was intubated, a diagnosis was never found but docs suspected some form of severe, rapidly progressing muscular disease - had a SMA type picture but with a very fast progression. He got a trach/gtube and was sent home to where we all thought he would die very quickly. Now he is two. He has no vent, no trach and no gtube, he is learning how to walk and loves to dance with his older cousins. He never got a diagnosis.

I wonder if Chiari malformation was looked at? We had a couple sad cases of this where the kid had a neck injury that caused swelling and compression the base of the skull. Also one case that was thought to be Chiari because it present in the same way, but no neck injury was known about. Instead kid had a viral infection. They decided the virus attacked the base of the skull and the kid was completely paralyzed from the neck down, trached, vented, g-tube, etc. Then over a few months kid started to get their function back. Last I heard they were feeding themselves and doing a modified crawling and able to use a gait trainer to walk. No trach, no g-tube. Just CPap at night.

[liketheairport]

Not a nurse, but: My sweet, funny grandmother had a heart attack at 3 AM when I was 16 and she was 72. I was holding her hand when she was in cardiac arrest, and I got the grip of my life to this day. Fortunately, my RN mom came to my loud cries for her, performed CPR and we got her back. She was in the hospital for weeks, she had a triple bypass, and my mom was scared because a 72-year-old going through that isn't so great. My grandma survived, and lived 6 more years, finally feeling ready to go at 2 months and 2 weeks before her 79th birthday. And two weeks after my mom got remarried and I saw Grandma for the last time (I was visiting from where I live now).

A friend of mine had been home from college and he was heading back to school when the vehicle he was in was hit by a drunk driver. (Weirdly, around the same time my grandma was in the hospital from the above story.) He coded on the way back to our hometown several times.

Over the next several months, he was touch and go. He is paraplegic, and 15 years later, is still such an inspiration to many of us who know him. He's still making so many figurative leaps and bounds, a vast improvement over seeing him vented with IVs, the EKG, etc. everywhere and him looking very confused, as if it wasn't real to him. (I can't even imagine!)

Oh, and the Saints winning their first Super Bowl.

[HHRN81]

This week! My brother had a seizure lasting more than 4 hrs, spiked a temp of 107, was intubated. He was born with hydrocephalus and already experiences neurological deficits. He is not deficient in love, hugs or smiles. Signs a few words and verbalizes a few more. Anyway, he failed multiple vent weaning trials, wasn't having any purposeful movement and developed a pneumo and got a chest tube. My nursing brain new that things were not looking good. My dad was in denial. Wanted him to remain a full code. I had a heart to heart with my mom and my brother's nurse who also stated that she didn't she things improving. He was finally able to pass a weaning trial on Tuesday and was extubated. His Sats dropped into the low 70s and his respiratory rate was in the 40s. MD wanted to reintubate, I looked at my dad and asked if he really wanted to do that. He cried like I've never seen him cry before and ultimately made the decision to make him a DNR with no intubation. They put him on bipap and gave him nebs and steroids. His breathing calmed down but Sats stayed around 88. We decided to leave him in bipap over night and then have a family meeting the next morning with the doctor to discuss a transition to palliative care. My dad spent the night, things did not improve. We met with the doctor in the next morning, decided to transition to comfort care. We waited in the hall while they removed his chest tube. When we walked in his room, we were met with huge smiles from my brother, he was mouthing "mama" and signing that he needed to go to the bathroom. He was moving all extremities. Bipap was removed and sats stayed 97. He was moved out of ICU yesterday and so far his only new deficit is swallowing.