Lost in Space

[StevenRN]

True Story:

An 8 bed ICU in a small hospital... Three codes.. Three nurses.. One physician.

Code #1: A 90 year old woman with pneumonia... This lady was supposed to have died 2 weeks ago. The funeral home even had a room reserved for her!

Code #2: A 52 year old man; just admitted.. post infarct.. stable (yeah right!)

Code #3: A 19 year old female. Post drug overdose... Awake, alert, and talking just 10 minutes prior. Total surprise!

Everyone runs into the elderly woman's room. Why? Because her family is in the room.

I go to the 19 year old's room and tell the respiratory therapist to intubate her. "No way"; she responds. "Give me the d--mned tube." I tubed her. Then told the therapist to bag her.

The supervisor is taking notes in the 90 year old's room.

One nurse is running back and fro.. Doin a lot of moving but not much more. I grab her by the shoulder and ask: "Are you being shot at?" (I'm an ex Vietnam medic). She just stares at me.

Finally; I stand in the middle of the unit and shout; "Anyone here interested in this gentleman in room 5? People just look at me like I'm an idiot.

I go into his room and defibrillate him. Luckily, he comes back to life; but in complete heart block. External pacemaker keeps him under control.

Three codes. The only one who died was the 90 year old lady with pneumonia. Crap! She got all of the attention.

What's wrong with this picture? Two nurses who didn't know their b--ts from a hole in the ground, a physician who was more interested in supporting a dying woman's family, and a nursing supervisor who just didn't give a hoot!

The moral to this story: Know what you're doing and DO IT!

There are a lot of terrific nurses out there. It's the one's who aren't worth a crap who give the rest of us a bad name.