Hiv In Adolescents

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what is the youngest patient you've had to work with that had HIV or AIDS?

What was the sadest case?

I seen a 20 yr old guy hospitalized with HIV and it was so scary and I felt soooo sorry for him. He also had an anal abscess(sp?). It makes me wonder how can they be so young and deal with so much pressure. The nurses were making the issue worse because everyone kept going in staring at him.

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Many years back we had a beautiful 15 y/o boy with AIDS. Before cocktails etc. this was a death sentence. His partner was with him constantly and was holding him in his arms when he died. I still cry when I remember him.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, Surgery, Med-Surg, Pediatrics.

I actually worked with AIDS patients in the mid-nineties. I was on a pulmonology floor dubbed "deaths doorway." Nurses would cry when they were pulled there. The youngest was an 18 year old hemophiliac. There were all walks of life. Gay men, a rape victim, transfusion case, hemophiliacs, etc. The worse was a girl who's boyfriend was an IV drug user. As she lay dying she was passing large clots and coughing up blood. She was so upset because here she was dying and NO ONE would come see her. She had a three year old her family wouldn't bring to say goodbye to her. She was so angry that she was throwing blood clots at the staff! No one wanted to go in. One of the nurses on my team and myself decided to suit up and talk to her. We told her we knew she was angry and scared but we would not let her die alone. We took turns all shift charting in her room so she would know someone was there. Luckily the dayshift saw how much this calmed her and continued. How sad it must be to be so scared. I am happy to know that I may have helped her in her last day. When I came back on shift I found out she had passed away. No one should ever have to feel so alone.

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Youngest that I personally cared for was in his 20's, he was a home care client of mine. His mom and sister came out to CA to help his partner care for him; he was a very sweet person. When he went into the hospital for the last time I went by to see him; he was too sick for visitors but I was able to talk with his partner for a while.

I almost got to care for a boy who became well known in our area, a hemophiliac named Ben Oyler. A movie was made about him after he died. Before Stanford would discharge him home his parents had to have a home care plan in place and I was asked by my super if I would be willing. In the end I didn't only because I was not a nurse at that time, and the lowest level that would be accepted by Stanford was an LVN.

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These are really sad :(

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Specializes in Emergency.

I spent two months working in Africa, and luckily I was working in an area with a fairly low HIV infection rate (so we were told). But it was so incredibly sad to see all these people laying in incredibly sick states, with little to no help for them. Even when the docs would suspect HIV, they often said it wasn't even worth the cost of the bloodwork to find out if in fact it was HIV. They just felt that because there was virtually nothing they could do for it anyways, it wasn't even worth looking into. I found that incredibly sad! You can't even attempt to get funding for anti-retrovirals if you don't have infection rate numbers! Plus, in L&D the nurses were using the same needle for Vit K for baby, and oxytocin for Mom, b/c money was low and supplies were short. The whole situation was so sad.....

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Stacey I dont see how you stayed. I would have been calling home crying to my family.

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I spent two months working in Africa, and luckily I was working in an area with a fairly low HIV infection rate (so we were told). But it was so incredibly sad to see all these people laying in incredibly sick states, with little to no help for them. Even when the docs would suspect HIV, they often said it wasn't even worth the cost of the bloodwork to find out if in fact it was HIV. They just felt that because there was virtually nothing they could do for it anyways, it wasn't even worth looking into. I found that incredibly sad! You can't even attempt to get funding for anti-retrovirals if you don't have infection rate numbers! Plus, in L&D the nurses were using the same needle for Vit K for baby, and oxytocin for Mom, b/c money was low and supplies were short. The whole situation was so sad.....

Wow... that's so unsanitary!

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We had an 8 year old on our unit recently who was HIV positive. She was in for facial cellulitis.

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