Re: your most memorable patients
On my unit we tend to remember the PITA or truly weird more than the nice.
Off the top of my head I remember
a 600lb 20yo who was in for bariatric surgery. Would be handsome about 400lb lighter, yet his family seemed to be proud of enabling him to reach that weight.
a patient that insisted on having gallbladder surgery despite being turned down by every surgeon due to age and heart condition. He got the surgery he fought for and died 19 days later and now forever more will his family remember Christmas Eve as when gramps died.
We had an old Eastern European want to show us his tattoo. We assumed it was going to be a number from the Camps. Nope, it was his blood group and regimental number from the SS.
Our favourite patient was a bowel cancer. He's alive and comes by a couple of times a year to thank you.
The good ones are few and far between. They remember us, but unless they are really PITAs on my unit we may remember your face but haven't got a clue why you were there.
A woman was admitted from the community to die on our unit. Her only relative was her 47yo Downs Syndrome son. He didn't understand what was going on. That was one of the hardest deaths we've ever had. Somehow this woman an her son had stayed under the Social Services network his entire life and had never set up a safety net for him.
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