The things you never forget...

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

There are things I've seen that I know I'll never forget. Anyone else want to share?

  • The first time I had my steth on someone and listened to their heart stop
  • The first time I looked at a CT report and realized my patient had advanced and probably terminal cancer...and they didn't know it yet.
  • Calling a family trying to get an authorization for surgery on an elderly alzheimer's pt, and having the grown child say the patient had been physically and sexually abusive as to them children, and they refused to authorize it, saying they hoped he died...and the other 3 kids (in their 40's) I called all said the same thing.
  • Maggots
  • Having to code someone with a living will stating no code blue, but the doctor wimped out on the DNR order because the family couldn't agree

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The thank-you-hug I got from the pt's mom this morning after two really rough nights. Almost makes me cry...

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Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

I went into an older ladies room for vitals and she was fast asleep. I ever so gently woke her and when she opened her eyes she asked if she was in heaven. When I told her 'no' she said she thought I was an angel :heartbeat

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I went to an Army base to administer vaccines before the soliders were sent to Iraq. I had to draw over 80 bloods alone, and soliders were phenomenal! They kept coming to bring me water, food, asking me to take a break and at one point, the commanding officer came over and said "Enough" because it was almost time to leave and some of the soliders that were lollygagging around started jumping to get in line. The clerk that was working with me and the soliders surrounded me and said "YOU, my friend, were PHENOMENAL. You didn't flinch, you didn't panic, you got ALL of our men. Thank YOU for serving us". I had tears in my eyes and said, "No, thank YOU for serving US". It was a Kodac moment, folks...

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I am especially moved with the contribution you made about hearing the heart stop and the Alzheimer patient being a sexual predator. Yeah, you get those moments...

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Working in the ER and a brother (16) and sister(18) were bought in MVA-DOA. The family is our neighbor. When the parents got there the Dr. asked me to go with him to talk to the family. As soon as the mom saw me, she knew.......:crying2:

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I went into an older ladies room for vitals and she was fast asleep. I ever so gently woke her and when she opened her eyes she asked if she was in heaven. When I told her 'no' she said she thought I was an angel :heartbeat

I have never heard of such a pure and heartfelt comment..Thanks for sharing this one ;):redbeathe

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.
Working in the ER and a brother (16) and sister(18) were bought in MVA-DOA. The family is our neighbor. When the parents got there the Dr. asked me to go with him to talk to the family. As soon as the mom saw me, she knew.......:crying2:

I could not even imagine being in that position. :(

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.

A few things -- a young boy thanked me for caring for him. The other was witnessing my first pediatric code -- 7 year old girl broughten to ER in full arrest and they got a pulse and rushed her to the PICU where the entire staff was in there trying to get her back.. after an hour of bringing her back twice, the doc finally called the death. Seeing the family cry in hysterics was the hardest thing I have had to witness.

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Specializes in ortho/neuro.

I have been a nurse for 11 months (almost made it through that first year!) on a neuro/ortho and I had the opportunity to observe a craniotomy and tumor resection for palliative reasons on a patient I had cared for on the floor for days prior to his surgery and had watched his seizures go from two in an 8 hour shift to every ten minutes on day 3.

The neurosurgeon allowed me to come close and view this patients brain after the resection and before he closed. It was humbling to say the least. Here before me was the control center for the most complex 'machine' on earth. I was gazing upon the organ that allowed this man to laugh, cry, love, speak, breath, etc but that at the same time was also inevitably going to be his demise as the tumor was recurrent and very soon, no further resection would be possible.

It just reinforced for me the maginificent beings that we all are and that we are incredibly resilient yet fragile at the same time.

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

Thank you for that, I found it very moving, and inspirational!

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1. My first pedi death......an 11-yr-old girl who'd run out in front of a van. She had eggshell fractures of her skull, and everytime we pushed on her chest blood came pouring out of her ears and nose. When her parents came in they had no idea, they'd been out shopping. We put them in a closed room and the doctor went in to tell them. The door was heavy and inches thick, and we could hear the mom's screams through it.

2. Saying good night to one of our janitors, who was about to go out and celebrate his 22nd birthday. The last thing we told him was not to drive drunk. The next day I came back to work and he was in the ICU, a complete quad. He went through rehab and got partial use of his arms; the hospital created a position for him.

3. The grateful, nonEnglish-speaking parents of a toddler who'd had a huge fecal bolus stuck in his sphincter. They'd gone to a clinic in a town 30 miles away and had been told to take him to the ER. They drove with him screaming in pain the whole way. I disimpacted him in 2 minutes, then called the clinic and chewed out the MA for sending him without checking with her doc first. The mother was in tears, thanking me in Spanish over and over.

4. The cancer pt who I discharged from home health to hospice. When I made my discharge visit she whispered to me, "You're not coming back?" When I said No she closed her eyes and nodded, then looked at me and said "I love you." That memory makes me cry to this day.

I could go on and on

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