Thoughts and ramblings from a tech/student

Published Jan 20, 2010

133 Posts

Specializes in Trauma ICU.

[Even if no one reads this, I wanted to write it down somewhere]

Since working in the ER, starting in July, I've had my share of cardiac arrests. Most of the time they seem to come from a nearby nursing home where I'm fairly certain the nurses and CNAs find their patients after they've been down for ten minutes at least. But the paramedics are called and they come rushing on in with a body that has lividity spots.

Regardless, the nurses still do what they're trained to do. I still remember my first code and the first time I broke a rib during CPR and the first time I saw a husband get teary eyed over holding his dead wife's hands.

But today I got to add a good memory to that mix. I was so busy running my butt off today because I was the only tech on the floor that I went back and forth between triage, the main side, and the fast track (for priority 4s and 5s). When it got time for me to leave I was doing laundry and counting down the clock. Until of course you hear that tell tale beeping- the one you don't want to hear- and everyone picks their head up as a lucky nurse or tech or doctor goes into the room to check on their patient.

This time that "asystole" sign flashing across the screen was real. And as I see people piling into the room as the crash cart rolls by. I'm almost done with my shift...so close! But I'm not one of the people that sneaks in the back 5 minutes before they're done to clock out. So I walk by the room (codes are always a cluster f**k anyways...people tossing things over one another- you know the drill) and one of the nurses calls me in to do compressions.

Half an hour later I'm going back and forth with a second nurse pumping away. I'm tired, want to go home, and I'm sweating up a storm but I'm still there. They've pushed epi, atropine, and bicarb (though I'm fairly sure I have the order wrong...I'm still a student) and the doctor's not calling it yet so we keep going. On and on and on, and then he says to hold compressions.

I do.

Something's going on on the heart monitor- v-fib! We keep going

Another drug goes in. Another stop.

Until finally I feel something under my hands. I swear I did. Some fluttery business just on my fingertips and the monitor starts picking up a rhythm. Good waveform and all that jazz as people look around at one another and a good many of them step away to let the nurses do their job. She's back, for however long that is I'm not sure, there's another tech at the door ready to take over.

By now I'm ready to run out the door but I finish doing my laundry (I started it after all). Its only when I got to the parking garage to drive home that I think to myself "wait was that her heart I felt start beating again?"

First code I ever had that we got back. And I was doing the CPR.

Neat :)