Baby Deaths

Larry77, RN · Oct 3, 2009

We have debriefings with pastoral care...you never forget them in my experience. Some have gone to free grief counseling our hospital offers as well.

dcarriv · Oct 3, 2009

the thing that helps me the most is a hug from my wife and another one from my son.

retiredlady · Oct 3, 2009

Thinking of the many others that you have helped to take care of and are now at home with their parents

LLLLiiiFFEsaveer · Oct 3, 2009

Thanks

That helps

CandyGyrl1985 · Oct 4, 2009

I havent had to deal with infant deaths... But I can say that when my patients die, if I was attached, I like to write about it. Depending on how upset I am - I will write about my entire experience with the person and then write about how it makes me feel, and MOST IMPORTANT how I was able to help that person in some way before they died. It might seem selfish, but sometimes if you think about the positives you brought to them (even if it was just a smile or caring enough to feel bad) it makes you feel better. It shifts you from being sad about something out of your control to happy about something you were able to control that made someones life just a smidgen better.

I also pray. If I feel bad, I ask God to help me cope with my grief and bring me some peace and comfort and maybe wisdom in what I am going through.

Trauma Columnist · Oct 4, 2009

You never forget - for me, even now years later, I remember several infant/child deaths and the one that I remember in vivid detail was in 1996. Talking things over and realizing you did what you could helps me.

allnurses Guide · Oct 4, 2009

Allow yourself to grieve.

I've seen more deaths than I can remember, after 28 years, but babies are hard. I pushed aside feelings once, for too long. It just hit me one night, and I cried in my husband's arms for nearly an hour. He thought I wasn't going to be able to stop, and was considering calling for help!

Face it, think about it, pray about it, cry some if you need to, but don't ignore the feelings. Talking it out helps, especially with the other folks that were in on the code. The debriefing sessions never seem to get held at a time when I'm there, but others have used them.

bill4745, RN · Oct 4, 2009

Hugging my kids.

SpaceCoastRN · Oct 4, 2009

I have never really had an issue with any code including pediatrics. From my EMS side I have ran far more than my share of pediatric codes including one day with 3 (two separate pool drownings and a rollover mvc with ejection). I have always looked at it from the stand point that I did not cause the patient to be in their current situation and knowing that the patient had everything tried to improve their condition. Take every class available to further you knowledge with dealing with these cases such as PALS/NALS/APLS/ENPC. When you know there is nothing else that could have been done you will sleep better.

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Oct 5, 2009

Witnessed an infant death my very first day in the ED. It really puts a lot of things in perspective, like what's really important in life and what's just BS.

LilgirlRN, ADN, RN · Oct 7, 2009

The death that that I will never forget was the death of the mother, not the baby. 5 days post section, had fever, abd pain. She coded in the ER when I was in CCU, we went to all codes. We worked as hard as we could for 2 hours but nothing made any difference. At autopsy she was found to have urosepsis, something a 4 dollar RX would have cured. The baby would be 21 now.