The alcohol on his breath was as stale as his manners. A hardened Vietnam vet with a serious drinking problem, he was now balanced precariously on the edge of extremely sick with probable internal bleeding. His belly was bloated and his skin a tell tale yellow. Despite his desperate condition, he was mad as hell
She spoke softly and hesitantly as I worked through my list of triage questions. We reviewed her medical history and I discovered she’d had a heart attack with full cardiac arrest. I stared at her young face. “You’re too young to have this history!” I exclaimed. She nodded, and in her quiet voice told me
He wraps defiance around himself like a blanket- Pulls it over his head so he can’t see the monsters. Anger feels better than fear. He doesn’t want to leave, but not because he wants to stay. He yells and curses and fronts because he doesn’t want to feel it. The truth. That’s he’s alone. ‘How
It has occurred to me that crisis response in the ER parallels our personal lives. When a nurse gets an acutely ill patient, their initial arrival is met with many helping hands. The doctor is right there and extra techs and nurses flock to the room to help stabilize the patient. The need is obvious
Is there anything a mother fears more than harm to her child? We’re haunted by their vulnerability- the fact we can’t control all the forces that could hurt them. We can buckle them in carseats that look like they were built for bombers, feed them food that’s never even heard of pesticides, slather them in
