When All Hope Was Lost....

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I would LOVE to hear stories from you nurses about patients who have overcome the incredible. When you or the doctor though that there was NO hope, the patient survived. Having all odds against them, they overcome. It seems that there are so many negative stories on here, would just love to hear some incredibly positive ones!!

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The human body is very very resiliant.. just count all the compensatory mechanisms! I had a patient stage 4 lung ca mets to bone and now prostate signed DNR and expected to live 1 month tops per his PMD.. well 3 months later pt just got re admitted with pneumonia yesterday and I was astonished still 100% cognition intact

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Specializes in PP, Pediatrics, Home Health.

I have a story about my mom and her battle with H1N1.

In November of 2009 my mom got really sick with pneumonia.Her lungs were filled with fluid, she was coughing so hard that she would at points be bringing up blood.Since was already on a diuretic because she has high blood pressure,our family doctor put her on a very mild antibiotic to help her with her fevers.He figured that since she was on a very good diuretic that it would help her with the fluid in her lungs and figured she didn't need anything else to really fight it.Well over the next few weeks my mom got sicker and sicker.She got so sick that she sat in an arm chair 24/7.Since she wasn't moving,so I told my mom to keep her legs up on a stool so blood wouldn't pool and to help prevent blood clots,but she figured she'd be okay.

I was in nursing school at this time so I wasn't monitoring my mom's condition as well as I should since I was doing my pregrad and I was practically living at the hospital.On November the 2nd I got a call from my dad as soon as I got to my pregrad placement to start my night shift.My dad was in tears crying and could barely speak.He finally managed to spit out that my mom was being rushed to the hospital because she couldn't breathe.I immediately let my preceptor know the situation,she sent me home and told me to take care of my mom, I could make up the hours later.

When I got to the hospital my mom was on 10L of oxygen and her O2 sats were still dropping fast.They eventually discovered that my mom had developed several large blood clots that had lodged in her lungs and was making it hard for her to breathe.On top of this my mom had spiked incredibly high fevers,had a severe case of H1N1,plus the pneumonia that she had been fighting for weeks.My mom was really really sick and didn't look like she was going to make it through the night.The doctor didn't give us much hope that she would.Out of the 35 H1N1 patients they had admitted that day, my mom's diagnosis was the worst because of everything else that she had going on.

My mom battled for days and fought off numerous fevers,was put on Fragmin to help with the clots and was left on 10L of oxygen because her O2 sats were so poor.God had other plans for my mom though.Out of the 35 patients that walked in that hospital with H1N1 my mom was the only one that walked out alive!

Each day my mom fought and she fought hard.She was determined not to die.She was still weak after her 13 day hospital stay, and was very sick for months afterwards.Despite all that happened though I still have my mom.The doctor told us she wouldn't make it out of that hospital alive, and she was the only one who did.

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Bless your heart.Hugs to you.

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Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

My dad had an AAA and on the operating table an MI. In the ICU he coded 9x. My mom finally agreed to make him a DNR. Then my dad was ok. hmmmmm He used to say it was beautiful over there.

He was in the hospital for several months and on his release refused the walker they tried to give him! :) He lived for three years after that and was able to do everything he had been doing before his AAA. Then he died of a sudden cardiac arrest at home and we think in peace. He lived right up until the minute he died we said because he had been planning a driving trip to another state. He died in 2000 so thankfully did not have to see 9/11.

Then I decided to become a nurse :)

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

We had a trauma pt that was not expected to live. We had to take his liver, and put him on bypass. If a donor liver did not match within 24 hours, this pt would have to be taken off bypass. Hour 23 rolled around and WE FOUND A MATCH for this pt! Unbelievable. We were so happy for this pt!

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littlemammanurse, what an incredible story! I am so happy she survived that!

Faeriewand - That is absolutely incredible that he even lived for that amount of time! I'm sure he did go in peace.

canesdukegirl- I love the organ donation stories like those. Who would've thought that something would've come in for him at the last hour? Just incredible.

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