THE INNOCENT BOY

[mulyantiapollo]

One afternoon at the daycare centre so sad it happened that this boy was knocked down by the school van. The driver was reversing not knowing that this young playful man was behind the school van. He sustained blunt chest trauma meaning the pneumo-haemothorax.

The first 72 hours were really not easy to the medical staff and the parents. The mother is pregnant in the last trimester taking care of the poor boy in the hospital.

The chest drains, cardiac monitor wiring systems, were terrifying to the relatives in the first one week of hospitalization. The Doctors/Nurses had to play great roles in the care of the boy and the parents. All the time in respiratory distress, resuscitating, carrying out different investigations, re-insertions of tubes/invasive lines and many other procedures were not easy to the parents and the medical team.

Now the boy is due for discharge to the paediatric ward but keeps on getting setbacks as it's not easy to wean him off the ventilator. He is still on T-Piece and CPAP alternating then DAY and NIGHT respectively. The parents have got a lot of medical information from the doctors and nurses as it's their right to know what is happening their child. Because of this, sometimes they make medical decisions which challenge the medical team at times.

The parents are so depressed, and recently we had to involve in the clinical psychologist to help. They keep on blaming each other for taking the child to day care when he is still young. The parents really want the boy to leave ICU but the setbacks make them more depressed day and night.

The boy gets episodes of depression and this really affects him as he happens to experience severe respiratory distress but after sometime he stabilizes and becomes jolly, playful and welcoming. As the medical team we expect this to happen but to the parents it's not. You can imagine seeing your patient laughing at you then the next few minutes is crying. It challenges everyone and raises many questions.

When I see a pregnant woman sleeping in the hospital, it makes me sad because I know what happens when someone is pregnant and how vulnerable that person is. She said she can't sleep at home when her child is in the hospital. She reached a time when she forgot the unborn and focused on the sick child, it made me realize the love of a mother can't be compared to any love on this planet earth. Whenever the boy sees the mother, he cries not because he is not happy but demanding love from her which upsets both of them.

I had to talk about it with the hospital psychologist and my colleagues as at one point I could get depressed whenever the mother comes in. She could look annoyed not wanting to listen to any one in the Unit. I could just look at her and keep quite without saying any word especially if I'm not the one nursing her child.

The boy is now better able to communicate using gestures and eye contact as verbal is limited by the tracheotomy tube. Hope with the help of everyone close to this boy, he will be able to resume his daily activities of living.

I had to share this story with you as it has been on my mind always.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

Wow, what a sad story thank you for sharing.

[Martyyyna]

Be grateful for what you have every single day because it could change in an instant. Bless this boy and his family. Hopefully everything will work out.