I kind of need a hug.

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Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.

For once I'm posting an obscure question from the coast of West Africa. Today, I just need a hug.

I was in charge, and one of our feeding program babies (not the one I posted about earlier with the high alk-phos - this is the one who was plumping up perfectly) hasn't been doing well for the past few days. He's had high fevers, a full body rash (kind of like a mild Steven's Johnson) and increasing work of breathing. Anesthesia (the ones calling the shots on his case) has been sitting on intubating him, since his CXRs have been mostly good - just some peribronchial stuff.

Anyway, when I went in today he just looked bad, you know? I called the on-call, who came down and was totally useless, so I ended up calling in another guy, one who just got off the plane last night. (I had met him at breakfast, he seemed smart, and he said he did peds!) Thankfully he came right down and took over running the show. Listened to me when I said we needed a tube, and finally got the kiddo intubated. By the time all that rigamarole was done, his tiny reserve was GONE, and he satted anywhere for 50-70% on 100%FiO2 for several hours.

In the midst of all this, while I was still trying to round on the wards and answer questions from all the new nurses working there, I got a call from the gnagway. "Hi, we have a dead baby." I ran up, and sure enough - a little 3-month old girl who was going to be admitted for surgery on her cleft lip TOMORROW was in her mama's arms, ale and starting to cool down.

I ran her downstairs and admittedly lost my cool for just a second while I plopped her on the next open ICU bed (the one next to the intubated kid) and demanded "a stethoscope - RIGHT NOW." Long story short, she was long gone, but we coded her for a couple minutes for the sake of the mama, who probably didn't understand what was going on anyway. It's the first time I've ever used a clipboard as a backboard. It's also the first time I've called a death, cleaned up the baby and handed her to the mama only to have the mama look at me like she actually expected her little one to be breathing still.

I held her while her mama tried to call her husband. They live way up north, maybe 10 hours by taxi, and she was going to have to go alone. With her dead baby strapped to her back, pretending that she was alive since she wouldn't be able to afford the jacked-up taxi fare that would be charged her if the driver realized he was trasporting a body. So I held her and I rocked back and forth, because really can we ever stop rocking them? And then I walked them out into the heat and I gave them some water and some transport money and the mama told me "Merci." I held the baby on her back while she knotted cloth across her chest and then she walked away, a tiny bundle in a pink hat on her back.

I really just need a hug.

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Specializes in Telemetry, M/S.

:icon_hug:

What a hell of a day... I'm hugging you long distance!

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Oh Ali... any time!! ANY TIME. Here's a HUNDRED hugs! Wish I could really hug you, you know, with arms and all. (Maybe someday.)

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:icon_hug: So sorry, Sending you lots of hugs from the Southern tip of Africa :icon_hug:

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hugs from Iowa!

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Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.

Just as an update - the little one who got intubated on Saturday went back to Jesus this morning. His kidneys shut down overnight, and he was in full-blown ARDS, and when the dad came in to visit this morning, he and the mama asked that the machines just be turned off. We disconnected all his drips and turned down his FiO2 and snuggled him in his daddy's arms with his mama holding onto his feet and in a matter of minutes he'd slipped away.

It was such a good death, the kind we rarely get to see in the ICU. It was just the family and me and the doctor who didn't try to hold on for too long but believed us when we said we thought it was time. And he went quietly, surrounded by the love he never really got to know while he was alive.

And then, after all the nurses came to say goodbye they went out too, their poor dead baby on the mama's back, to try and find a car to take them home without charging them more money than they had.

My poor heart can't take much more of this.

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hugs from Philadelphia, PA...may God bless you!

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Specializes in ICU.

Big Hug from Staten Island, NY.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

God bless you, hugs from New Jersey.

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Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.
God bless you, hugs from New Jersey.

Jersey? Jersey?! Can you just stop by and say hi to my family for me while you're that close?! ;-)

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Ali, the last baby I helped into Heaven was very similar to this youngster, although he was a SIDS and was never really "alive" in my care. His parents needed some time to process things and then when they were ready, they were ready right then. He was held mostly by Dad and slipped away gently. It's never easy but those ones are not as bad as the others, know what I mean? You were a comfort to those parents and they may not know your name but they will always remember you.

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Huge hugs from Florida. My God... This is where my heart is to work. I just hope I am strong enough. (like you)

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