Every Nurse has that one patient they'll remember forever

Wrangler156 · Aug 14, 2015

I will always remember a patient I had that was so very sweet, he was one of my oncology patients, when I left my unit he was so sincere he was truly sad I was leaving. I still wonder how he is doing, he was on the upswing when I left and I can only hope and pray that he still is.. He would always give me hugs and candy when he came in for his chemo treatments. My last night with him he said I was so sweet and he could sense that I really cared for my patients. He asked me one nigh : "That lady across the hall is she your patient too?" I responded yes I have these 6 up front tonight. He then asked" she has had a bunch of people in her room today all kinds of doctors and nurses, does she have something worse than cancer?" I had to kind of laugh because that is just how his thought process was he thought that cancer wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened and I just smiled and said she is just having some difficulty breathing so we are having to watch her closely, but if you need me I will be right outside your room charting tonight. He was just such a sweet patient and gentleman I will forever miss him. He was like family to all the nurses and staff there. He is the only thing I miss from my hospital days !

becca5880 · Aug 14, 2015

I will never forget Mr F. He was admitted to the Oncology Floor on Halloween day and that happened to be the same day I started there. He was a big strapping former marine and was always so positive. He lost the use of one of his legs temporarily and just cried bc he was so use to doing everything on his own, it killed him to need help. Eventually he was doing well and was inpatient still bc they were waiting for his counts to come up. Fast forward to Christmas Day and I worked and took him a present and spent time with him and his wife. He was doing great. I hugged him bye at the end of my shift and told him I would see him in three days when I came back to work. Two days later his lungs filled with blood and he drowned to death. It broke my heart, I cried and cried and told my husband I was never going back!

Cruz.Cookie, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2015

Although I'm just a student nurse and my story doesn't even compare to the incredible stories on this thread--the one patient that will always stick out to me was a retired teacher who wanted to pray with me during my clinical shift. We talked about everything from social to politics and etc. Before I was to leave for post-conference, she told me that I had the nurses' touch and asked if she could pray that God would lead me successfully through my journey in becoming a nurse. This was in my first semester of clinical in a Med-surg floor. I had to do everything within myself not to cry from that special moment. I will never forget her.

doctorwhofan · Aug 14, 2015

There was the patient with multiple dressing changes, ostomy, drains, trach - you get the picture. Just as I finished cleaning and fluffing him, his drains exploded and his ostomy began leaking. Over an hour of work gone. I began muttering and stomping around and then I turned to him. He had tears in his eyes and he mouthed, "I'm sorry". That man taught me more about humility than any nursing instructor ever could. Of course I immediately apologized for my foolish and immature behavior, hugged him and said, "hey! Two baths for the price of one!" I will never, ever forget what I learned and I'm ashamed that I had to learn it at the expense of someone's dignity.

On a funnier note:

I had a patient once that was admitted over the holidays. He was an older gentleman, nonverbal per his chart, and from a nursing home. I'm fluffing him and singing Christmas carols to him, just having a good time chatting away. In the middle of me talking to my nonverbal patient he suddenly says,"how close are we to Christmas?"

I stopped. I said,"sir, do you know that your doctors don't think you can talk?"

He said,"well, of course I can talk. I just didn't want to talk to them".

K+MgSO4, BSN · Aug 15, 2015

When I was a 3rd year student on the surgical ward Robert had been transferred back from a Dublin hospital after a bowel resection and pelvic clearance. Big man about 6'6" so deconditioned.he had been with us for about a month. Most of the female staff were too short to walk him as ge had a great fear of falling. Myself and Michelle were both 6 ft tall, Liam a HCA was the same height. This Saturday morning we decided he was walking to the nurses station. Slowly we got him to the edge of the bed and he stood up, as we were walking out of the room he was looking down at his feet and going nowhere as usual for the last week I'd been working with him. I suddenly said, "Robert, the floor is even, no bumps nothing to trip on and my shoes are not that interesting, however my face and boobs are much more Interesting, look up!" Apart from Michelle, the RN looking like she was going to kill me it worked. He started laughing and then walked the whole way to the station. He told his wife what I said and she came and found me and hugged me. Robert was with us dor another month and went home. As I moved around the hospital on placements I would see them coming to clinics and chemo appointments. 2 years later I bumped into his wife in the lift, Robert was back in and dying. She asked if I would come and visit. I had a bag full of controlled drugs in my hand. I said I would drop the drugs off and be down in an hour on my tea break. I went in and Robert, his wife and all the family were there. Iwas introduced as the boob story nurse! Then Robert and his wife thanked me because at that point 2 years prior they were assuming that he would never walk and would die then, his daughter hugged me and said I was the reason her dad walked her down the aisle. I popped in every day I was on and his wife would take those 5 min to get a cuppa and go to the bathroom because he was safe with me in her words. He died on my days off and a friend who worked on that ward let me know that there was a card from the family for me.

Over Christmas when our elective surgery dwindled on the same ward we would have less patients. I was now an RN. I was doing my nights (rotational shifts) 23rd Dec Margaret got admitted with a bowel obstruction from her progressive cancer. She was weeping as she was admitted at 2 am, she knew this was her last Christmas as was terrified she wouldn't make it. Lots of reassurance and hugs. Next night she had an NG in for decompression, come mid night I.e. 25th I snuck into her and woke her up to tell her she made it. She wanted to call her family, we did and organized for them all to get in at 6 for present opening. It was beautiful. I came back on that night and she was declining rapidly, we talked about her day and she said she wanted to hold on to 26th to die. I told her I believe that she could. She died at 1.30 am 26th Dec.

_Skittles_ · Apr 5, 2016

A beautiful person inside in out. Motherly instinct. She trusted me so much and encouraged me so much - always caught on to the little things I did. When she crashed she kept praying and praying deliriously and wouldn't let go of my hand. We took her down to the ICU (at this point she's gray) and I told her she would be back up with us in no time (she hated the ICU). Leaving her in the ICU I will never forget the look on her face - she knew she was dying, it was almost as if she was halfway to heaven already. She was gone within a couple of hours. Will never forget her. I cried for her and her beautiful family. She will stick with me forever.

My other? Burly rough as crude older man. Rough around the edges, always the jokester. The biggest fighter. I've never seen someone go to the ICU and come back so often. He was suffering from cancer and was running out of options and very weak. I had him a lot so we frequently talked and joked. I told him one night about how I had gotten engaged and when his wife showed up he said "get what she told me?" And he grabbed the corner of my scrub top weakly with the biggest smile on his face said "she's getting married!" Later that week I actually wore my ring. I had to call the emergency team on him but when it was all said and done and he was stable-ish he asked to see my ring and i will never forget him holding that ring telling me how proud and happy he was of me and how he was going to rough up the man if he doesn't treat me right. That night he went to the ICU for the last time and passed away.

OlivetheRN, ADN, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2016

The first guy that comes to mind wasn't even the patient, it was the patient's husband. I never talked to her. She was never alert while she was in our ED. But the look he had on his face when I was walking back towards her room at one point haunts my dreams some nights.

The psych patient I refused to discharge. Long story short he had to spend the weekend in the ER but he was admitted to the inpatient psych unit. He came back two months later and found me and told me that I saved his life that night. He told me that if we had discharged him he was going to jump off the bridge onto the highway...that bridge is less than half a mile from the hospital.