Recently I was traveling in Florida with my family to Disney World and a cement truck traveling in the opposite direction, on I 10, had a catastrophic blow out of a front steer tire. He started flipping and went through the median and hit us head on. The impact threw our car 88ft and we landed in a drainage ditch pointing the opposite direction we were traveling.
To make a long story shorter, I had to be extricated with jaws of life, I went in to shock and while paramedics were medicating me for pain. I had an anaphylactic reaction to Fentanyl and lost my airway.I was airlifted to a trauma center and my kids were taken to ALABAMA to another trauma center because we overloaded the Panama City hospital with our wreck. I didn't know how my kids were doing for over 8 hours.
The worst part was hearing the screams from my kids asking them not to let their mommy die. I am an RN in the MICU and I it was so hard knowing everything going on and having absolutely no control. I was the one that gave paramedics report when they arrived on scene and I told them when I was loosing my airway.
Once I lost consciousness and they cut my clothes off and stuck things in every orifice I had, I became scared and realized I was no longer a nurse, I was a patient. I am used to doing this to my patients and I have never stopped to think how I make them feel. I rarely ever was told what was going on or that they were getting ready to do a procedure to me. I just wonder if any of you have experienced being a trauma patient and how did it make you feel.
This experience has taught me to ALWAYS, whether they are conscious or not, tell my patient what I'm doing. They may not understand but when you are having a rectal probe used on you and they just flop you over and use it..WARN ME that its coming! I never knew how much Lovenox burns when going in, I never realized how hard it is to "cough and deep breathe" with broken ribs, or how it feels to ambulate with a broken foot and busted knees. Also, DVT's HURT like heck! Yeah, I got one.
Needless to say I have learned so much from being a patient and if I can help one nurse realize that patients are scared and just to have a friendly voice or a hand to hold, MAKES a HUGE difference. Once I have recovered and get back on the unit my patient care will be quite different and I think my patients will be better for it.
