Sunday, July 31, 2005
Scenes from a hospital
I watched someone die tonight.
The patient was DNR, meaning "do not resuscitate". Someone hit the code button, and therefore everyone in the building knew that a patient's heart had stopped beating. But the family asked that the doctor honor their loved-one's DNR request, and so he died.
Working in the hospital late at night is strange. The lights are down. The recessed lighting gives it the feel of a fancy restaurant. Monitors start beeping almost always ignored. They never beep for long.
There are people wandering around that may or may not have business on the floor. They shuffle past every few minutes or so. Doctors, respiratory technicians, janitors, visitors. Usually the visitors stay in the rooms with the patients. Sometimes the stress of a loved one in such a helpless state is too much to bear, or maybe they just want a cigarette. Nurses are doing endless paperwork and the secretary is shopping on e-bay. Some of us are wearing bathrobes because it gets so cold here overnight.
It's 3:14 in the morning and it might be hours before I do any real work. Four o'clock vitals and six o'clock accuchecks. Plenty of quiet time to think...read...pray.
The patient was DNR, meaning "do not resuscitate". Someone hit the code button, and therefore everyone in the building knew that a patient's heart had stopped beating. But the family asked that the doctor honor their loved-one's DNR request, and so he died.
Working in the hospital late at night is strange. The lights are down. The recessed lighting gives it the feel of a fancy restaurant. Monitors start beeping almost always ignored. They never beep for long.
There are people wandering around that may or may not have business on the floor. They shuffle past every few minutes or so. Doctors, respiratory technicians, janitors, visitors. Usually the visitors stay in the rooms with the patients. Sometimes the stress of a loved one in such a helpless state is too much to bear, or maybe they just want a cigarette. Nurses are doing endless paperwork and the secretary is shopping on e-bay. Some of us are wearing bathrobes because it gets so cold here overnight.
It's 3:14 in the morning and it might be hours before I do any real work. Four o'clock vitals and six o'clock accuchecks. Plenty of quiet time to think...read...pray.
