Tuesday 9 March 2010

Good News!!

I feel good tonight! I just wanted to share something with you all:

About a month ago I went out to a man hit by a taxi cab. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't in a good way. I tubed and ventilated him and transported him to my hospital. A little later that evening he was transferred to a cardiothoracic centre for major aortic surgery. I didn't expect he would survive, and indeed, I didn't hear anything positive from the hospital, just that he needed more surgery.

Fade to this evening:

I am standing in A&E, coat on, just about to leave to go home. BlarneyNurse walks up to me. He stops, and points his pen at me. I wait, patiently. "Someone's looking for you," he mutters. I wait, patiently. "Cubicle 2," he eventually says, and wanders off.

I pop off my coat and go and see who wants me. A family member? A barely recognised friend, who wants to jump the queue? No, not this time.

Lying there in Cubicle 2, smiling up at me, is the man from the taxi. (Well, from under the taxi, but you get my drift.) He looks well, considering. He and his wife have been asking after me. They are in because one of his stitches needs removing.

We chat, the three of us. She tells me about the agonising wait outside Theatre, repeated only a few days later. He tells me about waking up in ITU, 2 weeks of his life just ... gone.

Then they both tell me about their family; how their 8-year old and 10-year old want to thank me for making sure they still had a Daddy.

I take out his stitch, wish them both well, and float home.

13 comments:

  1. Wow, that's amazing. You should be very proud of yourself.

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  2. Nice one, RRD! My dad has a clotting disorder and in the string of catastrophes that led to its diagnosis is a trail of medics to whom we owe similar thanks.

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  3. You have an amazing job.

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  4. That's fantastic! Nice work :) And it's great to see that some patients DO make it.

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  5. Thats really good!!

    We often attend serious medical and trauma cases and never here of the 'final' result, whether it be good or bad. It would be great if there was a pro-active system that would allow us to do this more easily, especially for CPD, rather than letting chance take its course as it did this time.

    Well done!!

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  6. That must be a great feeling.

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  7. Fan-bloody-tastic! That's the sort of feeling I love going home with! Well done sir!

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  8. Thats amazing!! A wonderful feeling I am sure!!

    It happened when I was in Tesco once, and a girl ran up and hugged me. I hadn't a clue who she was, and she said "Thank you for saving my sister last night". Then it clicked, I had attended a respiratory arrest the night before and it was her sister I had treated. It bought a tear to my eye - and I am not an emotional one!!

    Well done!

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  9. What a great story.

    Scary that you can lose two weeks of your life like that. In the grand scheme of things this man has a whole life ahead of him with his family and he would not have a future if it wasn't for people like you.

    Truely brilliant

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  10. We attended a young teacher who had made a dash across the Leatherhead by-pass with her boyfriend. Unfortunately, she was hit by a car and received appalling injuries, particularly to her right leg.

    After a quick assessment, she was treated and loaded into the ambulance. Because Iwas in 'the back' it was up to me to treat her while we dashed to the hospital on blues and twos.

    As I observe her, and talk, she suddenly looks at me and says "you've got kind eyes."

    I thank her and shortly my crewmate and I hand the patient over to a grim faced team at A & E.

    Several weeks later I'm on overtime driving a sitting case vehicle on a routine discharge. As I enter the ward I see my patient waiting by her bed. Placing her in a chair, and ensuring she has any 'cream, lotions, pills and potions' I set off to take her home. As I pass one of the beds a voice says "I know you." bemused I turn to see a patient in traction lying in a bed. She looks pain free, but unfamiliar to me until she said, "You've got kind eyes."

    A disrupted family life, shift work, and holding down a second job suddenly seems worth while.

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  11. A beautiful feeling! Glad to hear you get recognition for all of those lost hours of sleep :)

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  13. Likewise Bravo-One, I am not an emotional one.
    However, doing some catching up on your blog here RRD it was *this* that brought a tear to my eye!

    Beautiful! ;)

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