What's the saddest thing you've seen in your career??

Published

How did it affect you and how do you cope with emotionally challenging situations?

Specializes in Geriatrics.

A cute 8 year old girl, now in a persistant vegatative state from a head wound- ATV accident. They prop her up in a W/C every day and take her to school, where i am sure the other kids make fun of her, cuz they dont know any better. I do not believe in "mainstreaming", nor will I ever. Cutest kid, saddest thing. Oh, by the way, this was in a nursing home.....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

Had a teenager brought in to my critical care unit last month, pregnant, in her 2nd trimester. We thought she was septic - I called the doc about 5 minutes after she hit my unit, because I didn't like the way she looked. I was right, it was bad. But it wasn't sepsis, it was a rare cancer, already mets. She and the baby both died within days. Still chokes me up. :crying2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics.

working LTC, had a "son" bring Dad in. Told Dad they were going to Lunch, dropped him off & left, "son" brought only Dad, no clothes, shoes, personal items, nothing. "Son" had come in earlier and signed all the papers. Dad had no idea what was going on. He was so depressed he refused to eat, drink, take meds, or get out of bed. He died within 2 weeks. We got clothes from the laundry, and gently tried to talk to him. Finally we just would sit & hold his hand. More angry with "son" for never having the courage to come in and visit, or even talk to Dad.

I put Son in quotations because I really don't have a very good opinion of him.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.
i have seen many sad things in my life...and my job... but there is one thing that i will never forget.... i was working flight.. and staff ER.. our hospital utilized us when we were not on a flight to work the department... anyway...

we got called for a major mva.. we took off... got to the scene and there was a family of 3 in the car that had been plowed by a drunk truck driver..

the dad was pretty much DOA. the mom was a mess but alive.. and the little girl just had a bad tib/fib fracture.. we flew the mom and 5 yr old girl back to the hospital... after we got there we were doing some very crazy things trying to save this mom... she was a train wreck.. at the same time.. we were taking care of the little girl in the next room... well.. long story short... the mom didn't make it, and the father was already gone.. they were from out of state just on vacation.. i was the only one that the little girl trusted cause i kept her calm during the flight.... anyway... the doctor would not talk to the little girl and tell her what was up... made me do it.....

i had to tell this little scared beautiful little red head green eyed girl that her parents were dead and that it would be over a day before her grandparents would be there.. she was very scared... she had to have surgery on her leg and no family or anyone she knew in the world there except for me....

well... i stayed w/her... i even scrubbed in on her surgery... i helped her wake up in the PACU... i transported her to her room.. and i stayed w/her until her grandparents showed up that next afternoon.... it was very very sad...

but... on a better note...

that little girl is still one of my friends...we still keep in touch.. she is going to college studying for med school... she is one of my best friends... and she has recently asked me to walk her down the isle during her wedding in a few months!!! :)

:cool:

Wow, your story is absolutely incredible. It's great that you've been able to stay in touch with the girl! :redbeathe

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

One of the saddest cases I have ever been involved in was a 22 year old male, that had relapsed AML. He had all ready had one bone marrow transplant (from his brother, no less), but still relapsed in less than a year. When I met him, he was depressed, and getting ready for a second bone marrow transplant. They finally got him back into remission, and I figured he'd stay out of the hospital for a bit.

He was back in within a couple months with pneumonia. He was from a very remote area of the state, and pneumonia or not, I didn't understand why he came to the big cancer hospital for this. Apparentally, he had 5 solid tumors going up his spine. They started radiation immediately, and he convinced himself it wasn't cancer, until they got back the biopsy. He was started immediately on chemo, and continued the radiation.

A couple weeks later, he went into respiratory arrest and ended up being intubated and rushed to the ICU. The nurses in the unit took excellent care of him, but said that it was as if after a couple days he just gave up. He was still getting transfused almost daily, and wasn't able to take any breaths on his own. Because his body was also in multi-system organ failure, he began shutting blood away from the extremities. As a result, his feet became necrotic. This was a boy that you couldn't keep tied down in a hospital room, and now they were wanting to do bilateral amputations. His parents refused. The boy was to be taken off of life support, but ended up dying on his own a few days before. He left behind a one year old daughter. :(

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MICU, SICU, CRRT,.

28 year old ruptured AVM..i just graduated so i havent seen a lot, but this was awful. Perfectly healthy before. When she got to us, in ICU, her eyes were fixed at 9mm, no reflexes present (anywhere), intubated, several drips to maintain BP. Pulmonary edema from h***...we were changing her vent tubing hourly to keep up with the amount of blood that was filling it. BP kept dropping inspite of being maxed on Levo, Dopamine, Dobutamine, Nipride and something else...extremities cold to touch, mottled, the works. EEG showed zero brain function. Failed every neuro test i could name..miserably. In all senses she was dead. That was all sad enough..the saddest part was that the family, being much more religious than i could understand, likened her to Lazarus. In their minds, God was simply using her, and after three days, she would miraculously awaken and walk out. I think what bthered me the most, was the dr entertained this idea for a while. He didnt want to have to seem like he was going against their faith. She was never made a DNR, so on day three, when she arrested, she was coded, shocked 4 times, and still died. Bothered me because she was my age..and the first code i saw.it was AWFUL, but made worse because we all knew we were acting for nothing, when the poor girl should have been allowed to pass peacefully.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.
working LTC, had a "son" bring Dad in. Told Dad they were going to Lunch, dropped him off & left, "son" brought only Dad, no clothes, shoes, personal items, nothing. "Son" had come in earlier and signed all the papers. Dad had no idea what was going on. He was so depressed he refused to eat, drink, take meds, or get out of bed. He died within 2 weeks. We got clothes from the laundry, and gently tried to talk to him. Finally we just would sit & hold his hand. More angry with "son" for never having the courage to come in and visit, or even talk to Dad.

I put Son in quotations because I really don't have a very good opinion of him.

That's so horribly sad! The place where I did my clinicals had a resident who told me about his nephew and how he took advantage of him, took all his money, etc., but since it was family he didn't know the right thing to do. The next day the guy was gone. He'd gone out to lunch with said nephew and never came back.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

what a sad thread. wow, after reading all this, i'm really depressed, maybe there needs to be a thread on hopeful stories, one of miracles, if they exist.

I will go to bed counting my blessings after reading all this.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in PICU.

I have seen way too many horrible things but I'll share the two that hit me really hard.

The first was the boy who was the same age and with the same name as my son, full arrest from a drowning accident at a farm. We didn't know who it was initially, so I was terrified I was going to be helping code my own son. I identified way too closely with those poor parents.

The worst one for me though was having to live through a shift helping take care of a friend/coworker's child and watching them tell her good-bye. We'd been friends for a long time and always talked about our kids together. Having to watch her daughter die was horrible.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

A stillborn, perfectly beautiful baby girl who was naked on the counter in the dirty utility room. WTFreak??? Whooooooo put her there????

A little girl with an astrocytoma, who wrote me a poem with backward letters.

A teenage boy with pectus excavatum.

Quads. Nurses who c/o about them requiring too much time and work

On and on. inmates in jail who never really much chance to do right and the guards who mock them, mentally ill and all their suffering and those who don't understand them.

God help us all.

It affects me by making me sad, by growing my resolve that God is good and allows stuff to happen that we don't comprehend.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical Surgical.

When I was in nursing school, there was a middle-aged woman dying of cancer. All her family was gone except her mother, who lived in California, and her young teen-age daughter (13 or 14). She had sent the daughter to her mother already to settle in and was dying all alone. She was so brave; she was concerned about ME and about her room-mate, if she was eating all right. One of the noblest souls I have ever met.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

Walking by a room in ER, the curtain slightly parted, seeing a sleeping child laying there, then realizing she was not asleep.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion