The ICU that I work in has recently been slammed with very high accuity patients, and several very young patients... most of which have lost their battles.
The last shift that I worked was more of the same. When 5pm rolled around, we were all sitting at the nurses station trying to catch up on our charting before the end of our shift. One of our nurses who had been particularly busy with a young 30-some year old stage IV cancer patient (and was told that day that she only had less than 2 weeks to live) ran into the nurses station with a giant smile saying, "we have to plan a wedding... she wants to get married NOW!"
We all dropped our charting, and quickly began pulling everything together. Someone went down to the kitchen and got a cake. Someone else went to the gift shop and got decorations. Somehow a big boquet of flowers appeared. Costume jewelry rings were dug out of a drawer. The resident downloaded wedding music on her iPhone. Within an hour, we had whipped up a wedding!
The patient's family and fiance gathered around the bed, and all of the ICU nurses, techs, respiratory therapists, doctors/residents, and the secretary squeezed into the room to watch. There wasn't a dry eye in the room!
I'm glad that I could participate in honoring her wishes!
