The Patient you will NEVER forget...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Okay, this is my very first thread, so... be gentle :blushkiss

I'm sure everyone has run into a "Buster" in at some point in bedside (or otherwise) care.

"Buster" was a 23 year old male. I can't remember what happened to him but he was in the Neuro ICU on a PhenoBarb drip for an induced coma. He had a constant fever and we kept him naked except for cooling blanket and a cloth to cover his "privates".

Well... "Buster" could not have a washcloth to cover him, he required, and I do emphasize REQUIRED, a TOWEL to cover him up... down there. I think at some point every nurse (female, well, and some male :D ) came to see this patient that required a TOWEL to cover him up. I had never, and still have not seen any male that well... er, uh...covered...in my life!!! He required a suprapubic cath because the Foley was not long enough. :imbar

Interestingly, as bad off as "Buster" was medically, he survived and I saw him about 6 months later (yes, I remembered his face). I was moving out of an apartment and he was on the elevator. He had some apparent neuro deficits in his gait and speech, but he was ambulating with a cane independently. :cool:

las vegas rn-----cool thread you started here...

there are so many that stay in my nursing mind.........

They come from all walks of life, various medical dx and histories, ages.....

When you interact so deeply and so signicantly as you do as a nurse that you have someone's lives in your hands, let alone their emotions, their families, their fears.......

KK--too young to die from this.....

EW--too young to die from this and she went through so much, but she made it home first.....

PH--overcome by the patient role, but I saw the lady inside.....

lil'Joe--oh, those eyes that said...and his family...

PV---she and I took imaginary trips to the beaches just to escape her trapped body and diagnosis

this nurse, mattsmom and all.....what a gift we do with our technical skills and also our hearts............

if i thought on this too long, all their faces are there somewhere part of who I am as a nurse.........

the patients that are so happy and give you the biggest bear hugs when they leave.....cause they know you were part of them getting better and getting back home.....

the patients that say thanks for stopping for just a few minutes to listen to me, I needed to talk about this and no one is listening.....no answers.....just listening........

micro

xxxxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

has the weekend off to recharge and reenergize, be a bit selfish and calgon away.....so she can do this again each day...

las vegas RN keep threading.....

This is a moving thread, there is a book that has a similar collection of nursing stories called "Touched by a Nurse" by Kane & Warner

http://www.touchedbyanurse.com

great thread.

i think it is as nurses we have the honor to, as micro put it, "interact so deeply and so signicantly as you do as a nurse that you have someone's lives in your hands, let alone their emotions, their families, their fears......."

"Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul" is another great book with lots of similar stories.

Awesome topic!!!!!

There is the lady who circled the drain for me all night, made her a DNR at about 4am. I went home knowing this women would die! I came back that night and heard they transferred her to another floor and she woke up and wanted to go home! love it!

the cancer patient who told me she only wanted to live to see her daughter graduate from highschool ( i lost it).

the horrible code when a Dr. hung up on me, and after we did all we as nurses could do, I watched this man die. :(

the little old man who had a "perma-grin" on his face all the time, who was so thankful for anything you did for him!

and all the countless stories of lives lived, most days I love my job!

I had a confused pt who got OOB on Nocs and started to browse the hallways and other pt's rooms. When I saw him I said "come on let's go to bed"....well he beat me there and flipped his pj's open and said "you get on top".

This is a great thread. There are a number of patients I will (I hope) never ever forget. Sometimes, I think too many.

There are families I will never forget, either. Specifically, I remember being at a patient's bedside watching her die (I don't remember why). I remember her family was very close, and I felt a bond with them. I remember I had tears in my eyes when she passed, and as a male, was doing my best to keep my emotions under control, and tears to a minimum. Her husband put his arm around my shoulders and said words of encouragement to me. I don't remember specifically what they were, just that I was astounded. This man just lost his beloved wife, and still had the courage of heart to offer support to me!

On a lighter note, I cared for a patient with a cervical spine fracture once. He had gotten drunk at the lake, and dove into water where he did not know the depth (we all know the story). He was in the SICU, in a HALO vest, and was very fortunate to have suffered no neuro loss. In talking to him, I mentioned that at least he had learned an important lesson. His response, verbatim, was "You'd think so, huh?" Turns out he had been in EXACTLY THE SAME BED seven years previously, with exactly the same injury, obtained in exactly the same manner, alcohol and all. I swear, I thought I could hear Darwin over my shoulder whispering "Damn, missed again!"

Kevin

Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

What a wonderful thread.

I had Norma with breast cancer, metastasized everywhere, who wanted to see her son graduate college. He did one Saturday morning, and she saw it on television from her room. We took turns sitting at her bedside that day and about an hour after the broadcast, she said "I love you all"....and went "home."

My diver with the neck fracture had been on every unit in the hospital. He had alienated every units' staffs. He came to us and lived with us for a week less than 2 years. He went from an obnoxious jerk, to our friend.

Donnie kept a small refrigerator in his room managed his own "business" there and we bought our candy and sodas from him. He had a telephone system donated by one of our Phy Ther. whose son had the same injury and had just died.

From the bad, through the ugly to the good. When he left our unit to move to his own house, we cried. Two of our nurses took his belongings in their cars and met him there to unpack.

I had the 37 y/o gentleman who was in for carpal tunnel release. (This was in the 70's when patients could actually STAY in the hospital).

He had a massive PE that evening and died.

I had the man with lung cancer who wanted to say goodbye to his 3 y/o little girl....he did then he died.

I'd wager to say every day there is one special one we treasure.

Thank you for these lessons in life.

Specializes in Adult internal med, OB/GYN, REI..
Originally posted by mattsmom81

LOVE everyone's stories! :)

And we SHOULD all write books! Maybe a group of us should compile short stories like these into a book, and any proceeds go into a nursing scholarship fund...(after publishing costs reimbursed of course...I know it's expensive to publish...10K right Renee? )

you know, actually as I was reading a book by Echo Heron last night, i was thinking...why on earth don't nurses have a TV show? I mean ER is primarily doctors and all, and if done well (ahem, rarity, right?) it could do wonders for defining our profession clearer for the public and perhaps even have a hand in recruitment!

i think that would be so cool...and we could all contribute stories! man, where's a producer??:D

Nice thread...

Mr. M. had a devastating case of strepto infection. He had numerous surgeries. At the end, all the flesh and muscles from his bottocks and a good part of his thighs was remove, his rectum also, so he had a colostomy too. He had ALL the complications and we "coded" him several times. He left the ICU after months of treatment and we didn't know how he did after.

Until he came back last year, looking for one of our patient. A 21 years old who had been miraculously saved from drowning by an unknown fellow. Believe it or not, it was Mr M. who, despite his incapacities, saved the young man!

Mr M. said he didn't quite understand where he got the power to do this. He also said that he had never understood why he was still alive after all he'd been throught ...until that day.

He came to thank us for saving him, saying that all the pain he suffered was worth it since he, being alive, had saved someone else's life in turn...

Miracles... there are so few. So grateful to be part of one...

Originally posted by wenron

I had a confused pt who got OOB on Nocs and started to browse the hallways and other pt's rooms. When I saw him I said "come on let's go to bed"....well he beat me there and flipped his pj's open and said "you get on top".

:chuckle :chuckle HILARIOUS!

More then 15yrs ago while working in the ER a young boy around 6 or 7 was brought in by a babysitter after his right arm had been badly lacerated when he accidently ran through a glass door. The upper arm was cut to the bone. He was scared to death. We were able to notify his parents but they were not going to be able to get there for over an hour or so.

We had the hardest time finding a damn MD that wanted to repair this kid. It's a community hospital so there are no residents to call and we don't do a whole lot of pediatrics. Miraculously he didn't sever any tendons just a lot of muscle damage. The pastic's MD thought it should be ortho and the ortho though it should be plastics. Anyway I was able to stay with this child and comfort him until his parents got there. He was so brave and we really bonded. We finally got ortho to come in and fix him. It could be done in the ER. It took a long time and he wanted me to stay with him even when his parents finally came. Anyway the next day I was working and someone at the front desk said there was someone there looking for his nurse from yesterday.

Down the hall comes this little guy with a huge bouquet of flowers he could barely carry with his arm all bandaged up. His parents said all he talked about was his nurse and he wanted to get me a present. I was teary eyed and to this day can still see that child walking down the hall with his hige smile and his very special gift.

Gosh that kid's in his 20's now.

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