Have you ever witnessed a Miracle?

[BostonTerrierLover]

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?

Tell me about it.

[BostonTerrierLover, BSN, RN]

When its a baby, or a pediatric patient, it gets personal real fast for a nurse.

Every Sick Child Deserves a Miracle!

[fxmama]

The Miracle that I experienced, did not come from my nursing profession, but was my son.

He was born at 36 weeks due to my pre-eclampsia, and was a very healthy 6lb 8oz boy. I spent 3 days in the hospital being monitored for my B/P, and on the day we were scheduled to be released a car seat study had to be performed to ensure he could handle being in the corificeat. It was a standard protocol for the hospital that he was born at since he was born before 37 weeks. We sent him and his corificeat back to the nursery while my nurse was giving me my d/c instructions.

When we entered the nursery, it was very quiet and there were about 3 nurses standing around him. His o2 sats were dropping rapidly. My healthy baby boy was no longer healthy. We watched the numbers drop from the 80's to the 70's and finally to the high 60's.He showed no typical s/s of respiratory distress...no cyanosis, no accessory muscle usage...nothing. The pulse oximeter was changed out to verify it was not a mechanical malfunction, but the numbers revealed the same. The nurses kicked into high gear and immediately placed him under a hood. I will never forget the feeling I had deep in my gut that something was severely wrong.

I stayed with him the majority of the day, but the nurses demanded that I went home to get some rest. I obliged reluctantly. It was that night that I felt a "pop" in my foot and saw the swelling emerge. Literally it was like watching a balloon being inflated. I called the on call doc, and reported this problem, and he advised that I just call my doctor the next morning as this had nothing to do with my pre-eclampsia. Boy was he wrong. After contacting my OB/GYN the next morning, I was sent for labs. She ordered the STAT, but the lab didn't return them until the next morning. I will never forget the moment I was walking up the hospital steps and hearing my phone ring. It was my fiance. My doctor was frantically trying to reach me as I had to be readmitted because I had developed eclampsia. I remember breaking down on the front steps of the hospital not knowing if I was going to be ok, not knowing what was going to happen to my son, not knowing how my fiance would have been able to handle everything. I pulled myself together and got myself up to the PP unit and got myself readmitted and back on that god awful Mag.

All I can say is that it was the worst 3 days of my life. I got myself down to the nursery as often as I could. I was told Kaleb had fluid in his lungs which was causing an infection and this was why he was having respiratory issues. Nothing could prepare me on that 6th day when my son's Pediatrician came in to inform me he had called in a pediatric cardiologist. At that time I had no clue about any kind of medical diagnosis', I didn't know how serious things really were until the echo....I remember the silence that was cutting like knives. I remember watching the Doctor get up and whisper to the nurses "Where is his pediatrician?" It was so quiet in that NICU, but there was something so unsettling about that silence. I knew the news was serious when both cardiologist and pediatrician pulled up seats to sit in front of me. I remember the news that shattered everything I had known, "Your son has a congenital heart defect. He will require immediate surgery." Those were the only words I heard...I was shown a model of the heart, but all I could hear after that was "womp womp womp...womp womp." I had no clue what a coarctation of the aorta was, all I knew was that I needed to tell my son's father. The doctors asked if I would be able to tell him and I thought I would be able to, but as soon as the words heart surgery came out of my mouth I completely broke down into hysterics. Here I was in the hospital for Eclampsia, with my son who had a congenital heart defect. I just remember holding him while tears ran down my face.

Everything after that was a blur...me begging my doctor to be released, the coordination of the transport, and kissing him goodbye to send him away with the transport crew.

He had his coarc repair the following day, he spent 2 weeks in the PICU, and a week in the NICU recovering. He is now the happiest healthiest 4 year old little boy I know. His scar will forever remind me how blessed we are that the hospital performed that corificeat study. His cardiologist tells me to this day, that he would not have made it if he went home. I am so thankful for every nurse and doctor that helped my little boy, and this was a big push to get me into the nursing field. So thank you all for being a hero!

[coupb8222]

our talents are god's gift to us.

what we do with them is our gift to him.

love that!!!!

[Goldenhare]

Took care of a woman once who was extubated and brought to our med surg ward to die. She was a ward of the court and had no nearby relatives. She was expected to die almost immediately but hung on and on as the shift went by. I was trying my darnedest to get in to the room but I was SO FREAKIN BUSY! I finally got to the room and took her hand ( she was unresponsive ) and started to talk to her. After less than a minute, she took her last breath. I think she was waiting.

[RN Zeke]

Have you witnessed a Miracle?

[apollo18]

I find many cases and scenarios to be improbable, or unlikely, but certainly wouldn't classify anything as a miracle. Sometimes positive outcomes just happen, with or without explanation, with or without medical intervention. That's just how life works, to me.

[coupb8222]

A lot of life experiences brought me to want to be a nurse.

I agree that it is a miracle just that people can "wait" to die.

Three days before Christmas my 86 year old grandma, had UTI, and pneumonia bout and was falling out of bed during the middle of the night, more often than usual and was saying something like "oh just let me die". I asked her to promise me she would "hold on until Christmas". And she said "I promise". Christmas day she was with us but in her bed all day sleeping and not even energy to get up. She was admitted to the hospital the day after Christmas. I had not the opportunity to visit her yet, and she had been in the hospital for 3 days already.

I decided to go visit my grandma. My mom called my cell and said "Did you just call me?"I said no, and that I was going to visit grandma at the hospital. My mom was at a funeral for a friend, and said that she would come to the hospital after the funeral was over.

When I arrived at the hospital my mom was in the parking lot. I asked her why she left early from the funeral and she said, she didn't know she just wanted to come.

So when we arrived on the unit the nurse was talking to my mom and I went into the room to see my grandma. My grandma wasn't responding to me, she was breathing but she didn't open her eyes or anything to my voice. I will never forget the suction canister was full of mucus. Anyways, So I went to the nurses station walking up to my mom and the nurse, The nurse said "I think this is the last time your mom is going to be in the hospital". I told the nurse in my whole life my grandma never did not "respond" to my voice, and that they should check on her. So the nurse my mom, and me went into the room. The nurse touched my grandma's shoulder and said "Dorothy, your granddaughter is here, and my grandma opened her eyes. I said "HI grandma". Then she took her last breath. The nurse looked at me, and said "it's happening" and I said "what is happening?". "She is taking her last breath." Then my grandmas face changed and her jaw dropped and I knew she was dead. I left the room and just put my head against the wall and cried.

It brought me back to when it was the middle of the night, and my mom and I were picking my grandma off the floor, as she tried to get out of bed that night, and she promised she would make it until after Christmas. And she did.

I think it was a miracle that she waited for me. That was very special to me in such a dark moment.

Now in my own nursing practice, I see this time and time again, people waiting for that person to come, then they pass away, or the opposite, everyone leaves the room, then they die. Death is natural but is nice to know that people "will" themselves to hold on, that is a miracle.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Wow! I love this thread

I do too.

[RNam]

I experienced this first hand: I was working on a cardiac floor. A co-worker was caring for a gentlemen who happened to be a "regular" CHF pt. It was 3rd shift and he was sleeping and his son was also asleep in the pullout next to him. The pt was a DNR, but as common practice for this floor, he was on telemetry. The nurse got a call from telemetry stating he just went asystole. I ran down to the room with his nurse to check on him. He was gone. His son was already visibly crying when we turned on the lights to come check on him. He told all of us that he woke up b/c he heard his father talking, so he just layed there quietly in the dark, and he said his father was carrying on a conversation with Jesus about coming home. He only heard his father speaking, but then then he lifted his arms up in the air for a moment, then quit talking, and peacefully died, and then we came in. I believe miracles happen all around us, we just miss alot of them.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Mine was August 26. 2005.

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!

Wow, what a wonderful life saving man that farmer was. Great story!

[RN Zeke]

What an awsome life event to share with us. Thank you so much

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Have you witnessed a Miracle?

'69 Mets.