The Code

March 26, 2009

I had my first patient die today. It was not weird or creepy, but it was quite sudden. Literally, one second she was alive, and the next second, she had no pulse (I was feeling her pulse when it vanished). The STAT team was able to revive her temporarily but a mere five minutes later, she passed away. I was there at the bedside the entire time, holding the patient's wrist because she had had IV Heparin running but had pulled the IV out. Naturally, her blood just starting oozing all over her hand and her bed. I didn't want that to be more traumatizing to the granddaughter, so I just held gauze to her wrist and stroked her hand as the granddaughter said her goodbyes. She knew it was time. I tried to be as comforting as possible which meant I just stood there with the granddaughter and didn't say much. Jennifer and I cleaned the room as much as we could, and then just gave the family space to say goodbye.

Whoa...