Have You Ever Been A Superhero?

I am not a nurse yet, but I did the Heimlich maneuver on an elderly, mentally challenged adult last year. I work with them and she was eating an orange cut into 1/4's, (bad idea for children or mentally challenged people), when she sucked down a whole piece into her windpipe. By the time we noticed she was in trouble, her eyes were bugged out, her face was white and her lips were blue. One worker was beating her on the back saying, "Spit it up, Spit it up." I ran to her and said, "She can't spit it out, it is stuck." I stood her up, trying to remember all those films and all the times I practiced on that dummy, put my arms around her, balled up my fists and jerked her off the floor about 3 times. She outweighed me by about 100 lbs, but when you are scared, you will do it. Out flew the orange just as she was about to pass out. Whew! I have never been so scared. We hugged and we cried as she sucked in air and kept saying, " Your my hero." I went to the bathroom and sat in the floor and cried and shook for about 10 mins. They carried her to the hospital to make sure I didn't hurt her. She was fine. They put our picture in the paper. It was neat..

How wonderful, Regina! Thanks so much for sharing this with us

Thanks - you did wonderfully!

I'm a hero 5 days a week and one weekend a month when I'm wearing my scrubs and my BDU's.

Isn't it a wonderful feeling. You should be proud . Super-hero come in all uniforms don't they.BRAVO!

I used to live on a very busy street and accidents were happening all the time almost daily! Weekend was the worst!.I have done CPR a couple times took care of some bloody mess there till help arrived .Its like something kicks in .You just handle it! You just know what to do and all that stuff you learned kicks in. I don't know about you but I am usually mental and physically wiped out afterward.

I Have attended a lot of deaths / hospice and helped Patients and there families through it.I felt like a super-hero there as well .Was able to give comfort to both .Kept the families from freeking out explaining the process of death .They would usually just tell me how glad they were that I and my agency was there.

I still feel like a super hero everyday with my new job in home health. I set up care for people and Veterans PT's in the home .Some of these people are at risk for going into a nursing home or assisted living but may not have that kind of money .A lot of veteran's its just a little difference of helping with the bath dressing and preparing food and cleaning up.Since we have this new veteran's program it helps pay for that care in the home with no out of pocket money.
These people are so pleased when I tell them its not a dime to them personally.That this is a benefit there earned while serving.There smiles tell me I made a difference every day. Even though its just a little.

are you a military nurse? i'm a nurse, an rn in fact but i do not practice nursing anymore. i'm a commissioned officer in our country's armed service

Yes I am a vet back in 1975 .No I am not in the miltary any more .I work in home health supervising CNA. We just have a Vet's program.

Last year I went into preterm labour and my son was born 3 months early. The most horrible time in my life. C-section, punctured bowel, sepsis you name it I had it and the whole time all I could think of was my little boy. I had only seen him for 2 seconds when he was born, so all I had was a crappy polaroid picture of him, I was transferred to a different hospital for treatment and such. While I was there all the nurses call my son NBM I kept tellin them his name is JACOB no one listened, finally they transferred me back to the hospital where my son was. I was still really really sick and the nurses at the women's/ children's hospital where I was totally heged around the fact that I had even had a littl eboy all. Then I was having so many infections and stuff so they sent me to ICU b/c of all the drips and such anyways, the nurs that came on the first night just said he yI heard you have a son what is his name? all I could do was totally bawl my eyes out! she was such a sweetie I had to have alot of blood transfusions so she went out and rented me movies that I could watch on my Portable DVD player and because I was totally freaked out about watching someone elses blood creep towards my body she stayed with me long after her shift ended so I wouldn't have to be alone. She is the reaosn why I fianlly decided to become a nurse. Oh yeah she went to the NICU for me to visit my litlle boy, and take pictures. She didn't have to do all that. the fact that she care what my son's name was was enough.

THANKS to all those nurses who take even one second to let their patients know that they care it really does make a difference! even though sometimes it seems like it doesn't

THANK YOU