Code Blue

[2018nursewi]

What code have you run that stands out in your mind the most?

[Wuzzie]

Ex-pedatric flight-nurse. Too many to mention, too sad to re-tell.

[sevensonnets]

The really bad ones over the years I can't talk about without revealing details that don't need to be out there on the internet.

[missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN]

Coding a patient for an hour, with a line of nurses snaking out the door to take their turn at compessions. Every compression caused blood to ooze from his incision, and by the end it looked like a bloodbath. We weren't getting that patient back.

[C0deNurse]

wow!! lol!!! To funny

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Coding a patient for an hour, with a line of nurses snaking out the door to take their turn at compessions. Every compression caused blood to ooze from his incision, and by the end it looked like a bloodbath. We weren't getting that patient back.

Sounds like a feces show. Why didn't the doc call it ?

[OyWithThePoodles, RN]

On the side of the road, my grandmother's neighbor. We were in the perfectly right place at the perfectly right time. Hubs and I switched out on compressions while my grandma was in the car with my kids. We got him back. He made it to the hospital, then to another hospital and died in surgery.

Of all the codes in the hospital, the one of the side of the road stands out more. I remember getting home afterward and changing and seeing the awful gravel marks on my knees and thinking "I didn't even feel the gravel."

My grandmother afterward told my mother-in-law that she has never seen me so calm before (I have anxiety). She said that in chaos, I was just so calm. I told her that this is who I am, a nurse. Calm in the chaos is a requirement. Now find me at the grocery with all three kids screaming and I'm a mess.

[PixieRN1]

A 15 year old girl...she had been on our unit as a frequent flyer. First she had infectious cardiomyopathy of unknown origins, in and out of heart failure.

She eventually had a CVA that landed her back with us. She stepped down only to come back to us in worsening heart failure. After just two days on the transplant list, she got her heart transplant! We were all overjoyed for her and her family.

She was back in her room fresh post op looking great. We were prepping to extubate shortly! Something like 15 or 20 minutes later, she coded (never was extubate). I'll spare the details, but she got crashed onto ECMO. She was losing blood somewhere faster than we could replace it. I've never seen a human that white before or since.

Official cause of death was a ruptured aorta that the ME attributed to aggressive chest compressions during CPR...but that still begged the big old question...why did she code in the first place?? We never did find out.

She was declared brain dead and the family removed life support/ECMO three days later.

She was an AMAZING child and her family was some of the loveliest people you would ever meet. Every staff heart was broken over that situation.

[jodispamodi]

this one is from when I was an emt, we got a call on halloween for a man down, responded to the house in about 3 minutes. Guy's wife met us at the door. She reports he had come home reported he didnt feel well, sat in living room chair, covered in sweat told his wife I don't feel good. She went into the kitchen to start getting candy ready when she heard a thump. She goes into living room and he's down on the floor. She says to him "oh very funny, haha" because he was playing dead on the floor. She goes back into kitchen, comes out with a bowl of candy, and says to him again, "Honey, you're joke isn't that funny" then she notices his face is gray, drops the bowl of candy and calls us. We worked him/transported him entirely for her benefit so her mind would think he died in the ambulance, not that she ignored him as he lay dying on the floor. I always remember that call. I felt so bad for her, we left in such a hurry with him that we didnt clean up any of our medical wrappers left on the floor, and having to pick those up as well as the candy.

[missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN]

Sounds like a feces show. Why didn't the doc call it ?

Teaching hospital during the month of July. We were grumbling that it should've been called at the 45 minute mark

[Julius Seizure]

As I've read these and thought about my own experiences, I realize that the majority of the most memorable "bad" events didn't necessarily involve codes at all.

[Julius Seizure]

My grandmother afterward told my mother-in-law that she has never seen me so calm before (I have anxiety). She said that in chaos, I was just so calm. I told her that this is who I am, a nurse. Calm in the chaos is a requirement. Now find me at the grocery with all three kids screaming and I'm a mess.

I was told a similar thing after a tragic death in my family.

[amoLucia]

Bloody ones were always difficult. Like those with DIC or a bleedout with esophageal varices.