Tuesday 15 April 2008

Doctors and Nurses: Part 2

So we've established that our little doctor has a sense of humour. Certainly he displayed more of it when we were coming back from transferring a patient awhile ago. After returning to the ambulance, in the freezing cold, we pulled the blankets off the trolley wrapped them around ourselves to warm up. When doc pipes up and asks "Take me back to my refugee camp via Safeway!" (I have to wonder when he last had to go food shopping as Safeway was bought out by Morrissons a couple of years ago) The paramedics just looked at us and asked if we wanted dropping off a phyc unit instead of ITU. This however is the episode where we discover that he also has a heart.
Another patient had died, we were expecting it. He had been starved of oxygen for 10min during an MI and his brain had become seriously impaired. He almost died in my arms as he was being rolled. I've never had to do last offices before, although I have handled the paperwork for patient's who have passed away.
I cracked at the point when the nurse I was working with closed the zip on the body bag and said to the patient "Night night, Sweet dreams." I was out of the unit as fast as I could without drawing attention to myself... When I finally made it back he actually asked me if I was OK.... aww.

3 comments:

Faith Walker said...

What year are you in now? I'm so jealous if you are a first year and in ITU!

Last Offices is hard. I've done it too many times to count now, but it always makes me cry.

Faith Walker said...

What year are you in now? I'm so jealous if you are a first year and in ITU!

Last Offices is hard. I've done it too many times to count now, but it always makes me cry.

WardBunny said...

Technically I'm now in third year. I spent first year in care homes and with health visitors. Nice grounding in how to talk to the elderly.
What really got me was that I knew he was dying. I sat there for 10mins holding his hand knowing he was going, and soon, and I didn't even know him. But like I once said 'The dead I can handle, it's death that I can't'.

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