With all Respect to the Allnurses crew, I hope this doesn't get moved to the Spirituality section, because I'm truly not approaching this from "just" a spiritual standpoint.
I want it where all sorts of Nurses from different walks can respond.
Have you ever witnessed something that took your breath away on the clock? Maybe it was a small miracle, but you never forgot it. But nothing medical or scientific could explain it. Or maybe it could, but yet the odds were against it totally?
Had a patient who had a PET scan clearly show her cancer had relapsed in a massive way. Took her down to do a CT guided biopsy a week later. They couldn't find ANYTHING to biopsy. Repeated the PET the next day. Nothing. Discharged her.
She did eventually end up relapsing and eventually dying from her disease, but had 2 more years of quality, cancer free life.
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
I see one every day when I look in the mirror....born with tetralogy of fallot...hung on long enough for Drs Blalock and Tussig to figure out a surgical procedure to correct it....almost 50 years later I'm still here and pretty darn healthy.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Mine is almost 21 years old and didn't happen at work, but he's a miracle nonetheless. :redbeathe
Ben was born weighing 10 lbs. 9 oz., a healthy happy newborn in every way. Unfortunately, he got RSV at 5 months of age and developed severe asthma, which landed him in the hospital for 8 days during Thanksgiving 1991. He was OK for a couple of weeks afterward, but then got sick again......back to the hospital we went. I'd gone home to gather some personal things so I could stay with him as I had throughout his first go-round, but when I got back to the hospital, I saw a doctor I'd never met before leaning over him and listening to his chest with a grim expression.
My son lay in the crib, limp, grey, and using every accessory muscle he had to breathe. Thank God I didn't know then what I do now, because I'd have been twice as freaked out as I was. The MD told me that Ben was in very critical condition and nearing respiratory arrest; since he needed intubation, he was going to be Life Flighted to a large children's hospital 70 miles away where they could handle this. Naturally, I was scared to pieces, and the hardest thing I have ever done---ever---was to put him on a helicopter and watch it fly off into the chill December night, not knowing if I'd see him alive again.
Well, I'll probably never know what exactly happened, but sometime during that 20-minute flight, Ben's condition took a dramatic turn for the better, and by the time they got him to PICU, he was sitting up and looking around at everyone like, "What's going on?" He spent one hour in PICU and was so stable by that time that he went out to the floor, in a regular isolation room. When I finally got there, he was sitting up in the crib, holding his bottle and taking the IV out of his scalp as calmly as if he knew what he was doing.
That little miracle is the reason I became a nurse. And even though I've worked mostly with folks at the opposite end of life, I'm glad I've been able to make a difference for other parents who've gone through similar experiences.
wow , i am a new grad lpn and this is the reason that im taking myy education to the fullest extent, it takes a very special person to be a nurse, because we deal with the unbelieveable, we make a difference in this coldworls and i would never change my proffession for the wourld, i have been a cna or 6 years and now im going for my rn, then i want to be a nurse practioner, this is pure motivation for me, Tears in my eyes, thats what these stories have bought to me
I had a previously healthy kid come in looking awful with asthma. He stayed about an hour on the floor before we put him on BiPap and sent him to the PICU. Up in the PICU he was intubated and stayed that way for weeks. He coded multiple times and eventually ended up on Ecmo. After being on Ecmo for about two weeks the doctors began to tell his mom that he likely would not survive, and they began discussing pulling him off life support. However, he slowly started to get better and was taken off Ecmo and extubated. He eventually made it back to my floor. He was unmoving, unable to talk, and wouldn't open his eyes. He was neurologically devastated from everything that he had been through. It was expected that for the rest of his life he would eat through his gtube, live in a wheel chair, and never talk again. His mom was preparing to send him to a long term care facility near her home because he would be too much for her to take care of on her own. About three weeks later I had to tell him to stop playing tag in the hallway.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Wow Sharpie Mom, Viva and Cape Cod....what amazing stories. Purple in scrubs....I about peed my pants when I looked down and saw her looking at me. I called out Th=ot the MD's at the station and I saw them roll their eyes as they got up and came to the room. The look of utter disbelief on their faces was very satisfying. I remember packing her to fly out and she pulled on my jacket and mouthed the words "Thank you".....we all sobbed as she left from exhaustion and relief.
I will NEVER forget that moment for the rest of my life.
I have been fortunate to see and be part of a few real miracles. One of my favorite is one that is not as dramatic as some I have read tonight but it is still one of my favorites.
I was working in a detox hospital associated with an alcohol rehabilitation program. One day a man came to detox. He looked about 70. His arms and legs were wasted, thin, and dry. His abdomen was 56 inches and filled with fluid. And he was green. Actually he was so yellow he looked green. I looked at him and all I could think of was "Kermit". It was not easy being green. He had a hard detox. All of us thought he would die in withdrawal, not uncommon for someone that debilitated. He got through detox and completed his 30 days. We all thought he would go back to drinking. The success rate in general is not good, for folks with as much progression as he, well how does next to zero sound?
We heard nothing about him. Many of our patients would call at important points in recovery. He did not. He had to be dead.
One day a very handsome man wearing cowboy boots, snug jeans, and a big smile stopped by the hospital. None of us knew who this hunk was. He looked about 33, had a 34 inch waist and stood about 6' 2" before the cowboy boots. He called us each by name. We had no clue. This tanned, healthy male specimen was our former patient. Gone was every vestige of Kermit. Full muscles, slim waist, standing tall and proud, our miracle man who believed he could follow a program of recovery one day at a time. He gave much credit to the nurses for going out of our way to help him heal physically as well as emotionally and most importantly, spiritually.
He spoke at the AA meeting that day and shared his story. His story has always stayed with me that any addict has an opportunity to change. Each change is a miracle.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Not as "dramatic"??!! AKY, I've got chills reading your post. What an incredible, life-affirming miracle this was!! God bless each and every one of you who were involved in his recovery........and thank you for sharing it with us.
I was working at a hospital in Southern Mississippi. Hurricane Katrina was making landfall from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to New Orleans, LA. We had lost electricity, water pressure, and if you know anything about Mississippi in August, IT WAS HOT!!!!!
It was such a mess because we were supposed to be safe, hurricane refugees, and FEMA/MEMA(Mississippi Emergency Mngt) were here to be "Out of the Storm." Red Cross Members were everywhere around preping to get into the storm zone, but batting down for the storm here. Of Course, Shelters were set up around the local public school Auditoriums and Gyms, and Churches had cots set up taking care of storm refugees, and emergency mngt officials.
NOW WE WERE A SMALL CRITICAL ACCESS FACILITY, so you know we are totally designed to SEND critical patients to larger medical centers. Before the weather had got to critical, 3 birds had already landed with critical vent patients, and since the electricity was out, we were full up with people WHO HAD TO HAVE ELECTRICITY for home vents, asthmatic children, and others who were brought in, yet not AS critical as the vent patients.
WE WEREN'T READY FOR THIS, I was 24, and as ER Coordinator, I was in-charge. I had been there going on my 15th hour when the night fell, and the weather finally died down. The Copters were back at it, 4 more Vent patients were in by helicopter.
We had 7 now, and were running on a generator that was 1/4 full of gas. (3 more hours at best). DO I NEED TO TELL YOU THE LINES AT THE STATIONs HAD TOTALLY WIPED OUT THE GAS YESTERDAY IN TOWN! I told the MEMA officials, and they told me the roads were inpassable, and they would make calls, but their communications were horrible, and the face he made I remember to this day.
I was SO FRUSTRATED, I gathered my nurses up, and prepared to tell them worse. We had decided who would bag, who would field triage the overwhelming crowds now starting to come in, and I WAS TERRIFIED.
We gathered fuel from the ambulances, a pulpwood truck, and an abandoned Freightliner via a helping inmate trustee. The trustee told us that local chicken farmers probably had diesel saved up for the storms, and if we got in dier straights, to let him walk to his father's house. WE WERE IN DYER STRAIGHTs 2 HOURs AGO. The Sheriff said ABSOLUTELY NOT. 10 minutes later, our 1983 Generator played out, the lights went dark, and silence fell.
I snapped my flashlight on in chord with all other nurses, and we looked like a casino of flashing lights running to our bag posts. Chaos and fear were everywhere as Hopelessness was the backdrop, The MEMA official, who went out to check the generator came back and told me it was gone, It hadn't run out of gas, it was broken down-he couldn't crank it. I could barely respond,. . ."Well we have to bag. . . ,That is all we can do now."
He didn't respond, he just looked down and pinched his nose. The air was SO HOT and stiffling, I wondered if everyone else's arms were as sore as mine from bagging, and I am in shape(at the time, lol). An, EMT relieved me, and started pumping. He said he had to do something.
All you could hear now was the squish of multiple bags, hands cramping, EMTs switching out with RNs, LPNs switching with Techs, each minute felt like an eternity. The Doctor had been out in the field area, an RN and LPN assisting, they had stopped working when the lights went out, he knew they would have to revert to the worst off in side.
I remember the roar of the generator had been so comforting giving us a piece(or peace) of normality. I remember the a person with authority who I won't point out, tell me we couldn't do this forever, and their was no relief in sight.
The sound of an ATV outside getting louder was the primary noise now, and then, . . .I need 4 men to help me lift!, . .
OH GOD, IS IT ANOTHER PATIENT?
NO, ITS A GENERATOR!!! ANYONE COMING?
It belonged to a local poultry farmer who sacraficed 2/3 loss of his flock to give us power and diesel to save the lives of 7 humans, of whom, I know 5 are alive to this day, Including a 10 yr old MVA Ejection. (He is now our towns ALL STATE QUARTERBACK 8-0 this season).
The Farmer stayed annonymous even in the event, and no one but me, the inmate, and the Sheriff knew where the generator came from, 2 days later the power was restored, but off and on for a week, AN Emergency generator was brought on Day 2, The Farmer never asked for his during this time, not even if we had one coming. I didn't want to tell him one was, other stuff was promised but never made it. KATRINA WAS A BXXXCH!
Three inmates grilled daily from donated foods, and meals were pulled together by them alone for inpatients. MREs came on DAY 5.
The Inmate that saved all our butts is now the building and grounds worker for all county buildings. The sheriff was voted out next election (His house kept electricity throughout the whole ordeal).
His father died last year, the most awesome farmer I know. My church had to dig into the benevolent fund to help bury him, a man that saved the dignity of a town!
blondy2061h, MSN, RN
1 Article; 4,094 Posts
Had a patient who had a PET scan clearly show her cancer had relapsed in a massive way. Took her down to do a CT guided biopsy a week later. They couldn't find ANYTHING to biopsy. Repeated the PET the next day. Nothing. Discharged her.
She did eventually end up relapsing and eventually dying from her disease, but had 2 more years of quality, cancer free life.