StephanieMc

Ditto shiloh!!

I tend to agree with this to a point, from my personal experience with my son. We took him to Chicago University for his transplant and that is where we stayed for 4 months until he died. I had some altercations with the doctor there but that happens when you know to much about what is going on and dont agree with his care. After he died I had kept in touch with the transplant coordinator and one day I got his bill after my insurance paid. The whole bill was greater then $900,000.00. I called the coordinator having a balance of $70,000.00 for some medications that was $10,000.00 a dose. She returned my call after talking to the transplant MD who was in charge of the whole operation and theri response was...and I quote" Dr _______ says we have made more then enough moeny off of you and Brian so we are going to just erase that balance and we will call it even" My son had not been deard 2 weeks ...and they had made enough money and were going to call it even????? MY son gave his life I hardly call that an even exchange. So yes....sometmes I too think things like this are a "money racket" but then nothing in life is free and every one is out to make a million$. Get me off this soap box I feel flames. NOt at you guys but at what happened in Chicago. MOre then enough money my heiney!!!!!

I APPLAUD you Kyriaka.....I give you a standing ovation for being able to survive all you have endured..

Stevierae...you are oh so wrong. Patients that have been declared braindead are not dead and they can hear. Read my article about my son I wrote. You will never convince me he didnt hear me or the nurses that made his HR increase with their loud voices or noises. I have experienced more of this since I have started talking to them and having their families do the same. Believe what you will but I have first hand experience and you are wrong.

Thank you Kyriaka. I am sorry for your loss of your 4year year old. You didnt the the outcome of your 7year old that was put on life support. If he passed I am so sorry and know your pain. If not, how is he? And I am so glad to hear that you have very minimal deficits from your burns. God works in mysterious ways. Medical personnel ie: Doctors and nurses both can only use the information and knowledge given to them, but the final outcome is in Gods hands.

Leslie, thak you for asking, but Brian died April 10th, 1990 2 months after he received his liver transplant. It seems there was a fungus on the hepatic artery of the donor liver and it continued growing after transplant and ate a whole in the hepatic artery, blowing like an aneurysm. But the two days after he was extubated he did respond with his HR to my voice and touch. It is amazing when there are no brain waves that there is something in the brain that is still working... so I have continued with this knowledge on my patients.

Thank you Kim. It hasnt been an easy road to go down, even now, but it did give me whole new prospective on alot of things pertaining to how I approach and treat my patients and their family members. Not that I ever treated them badly, it just gave me a new avenue to take and trust me...it is a much better one. It also helps me talk to patient family members about DNR's and taking their loved ones off the vent. I tell them I can relate and they open up a lot more after hearing this.

14 years ago, after a liver transplant that went terribly wrong, my 15 y/o son was diagnosed brain dead. After making the decision of taking him off of the vent, we moved him into a private room whre we could stay with him until the end and it was much quieter. His HR would be well over 120 in the ICU but when moved to a private room, I would lay on the bed with him, stroke his hair and talk very softly to him. His HR would drop to 76-80. Then if someone would come into the room with a loud mouth (such as some nurses) or make a loud noise in the hall his HR would jump back up to 110-120. So yes, after this experience I ALWAYS talk to my brain dead or comatose patients. You will never convince me they do not hear you.

Stitchie....take a deep breath, relax and you will do fine. The ACLS that most every one uses now is less stressed and very few people cannot pass it if they have experience, which it sounds a s if you do. so relax..I think you will do fine, just remember to know your drugs when and what they are used for. That is a biggie.

I totally agree with your answer to her question. Quit trying to blame this on other reasons when the stress test came back abnormal. Denial is a straight road to an MI and you may not get a second chance. Fire that cardio and get another but have that angiogram quickly!!

Stitchie....you have the date down as April 26th. Today is May 20th. We just want to make sure you havent missed your test or you have just mistaken May with April.Double Check sweetie I would hate to thikn you missed it already. Stephanie;)

OBGirl....I know what you are feeling, I felt that way too while i was in school and right after I graduated in 1978. But trust me your infatuation with "white" will be short lived. It gets old and I have had more patients tellme then not that they like the bright colors of our uniforms. They say it brightens up a dreary/dull stay in the hospital. Every one has their own opinions about this, that is why they still make a few white uniforms...for the ones that havent been in nursing long. :) Good luck after graduation. Are you going to specialize in OB/GYN? I have done ortho/trauma and neurosurgery, but my true love is ICU. I hope you enjoy nursing as much as i have the past 26 years. We need more nurses to come in and stay in.

Lysa...I totally agree with you. It doesnt matter what color you wear. The care you give to your patients is what the patients will remember. And one step further, if the patient has had 2 good nurses in white and one bad one with an attitude wearing scrubs she/he will remember and talk about that one bad one more and that white uniform will not make the least bit of difference. But back to the original scrubs issue. The ones wanting to dress in the "all white uniforms", well most of them are young or new at nursing. I have been a nurse for 26 years and have seen many changes in nursing, including the uniforms. Comfort means a whole lot more to me. But I think no matter what is worn it all should be clean and neat to uphold the "professional" appearance.