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A Day at Work - A tale of two lives.
Topic Started: Aug 8 2007, 06:51 AM (313 Views)
George K
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Finally
Yesterday was a day unlike others. I was on call yesterday and had two interesting occurrances that were in a way, ironic.

About 1 PM we had an emergency case. It was a lady who, 15 years ago, had had a colon resection for a (carcinoid) tumor. She had done well, with no symptoms and basically good health. She had only hypertension as an illness. She came to the hospital over the weekend with a bowel obstruction. Of course, there are two likely diagnoses:
1) Recurrent tumor (but after 15 years...)
2) Adhesions (bands of tissue that grow causing the bowel to become obstructed).

Did I mention she was 95 years old? She was alert, charming and delightful. She was also very frightened. As I got her off to sleep, I was holding her hand, and I told her that "Helen" (her name) was a rare name these days. I mentioned that my first great love was named Helen. She asked if I ended up marrying her. I told her that, in fact, I had. Everyone in the OR looked at me, incredulous, but silent, for Mrs. K's name is not Helen. This lady lost consciousness and drifted off.

"I didn't have the heart to tell her that we were only married for 18 months," I said and everyone smiled. It seemed like the kind of lie that was appropriate at the moment.

Surgery revealed that Helen's cancer had recurred, and in a bad, bad way. She was beyond any kind of surgical cure, and the surgeon performed a colostomy to avoid further bowel obstructions. A bowel obstruction is a nasty way to die.

So, Helen will die. Probably in the next year. With luck she will not hurt, she will just get weak and pass on, having been born before World War One, and having her family (who, I was told) are wonderful and caring with her.

A good life.

About two hours later, the head nurse from recovery room came up to me and said that he was taking Carole (another nurse in RR) to another local hospital. Carole's husband had collapsed at work, the paramedics came and performed CPR and rushed him to a local hospital. According to the head nurse, Carole was ashen and shaking all the way there (about a 40 minute drive). At the local hospital, they thought he had suffered a massive heart attack, and were taking him to the catheterization lab to see if they can open an occluded coronary vessel.

They opened two vessels, and during the procedure, he arrested at least two more times. At the end of the procedure, he was comatose, and marginally stable from a hemodynamic standpoint.

I am off today (after call) and I just got a call letting me know that Carole's husband had died.

Did I mention he was 46?

So, he's dead. A short life, with a young and vibrant wife and young children. A shock to the system that comes from nowhere.

I am shocked at the contrasts in these two lives.

Thanks for reading, I just had to share.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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The 89th Key
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It takes a special breed of a person to be able to work in such an environment, with life, death, happiness, grief, etc...all around. Thanks for sharing George.
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sue
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HOLY CARP!!!
I agree totally, 89th. I couldn't do it. I'd be an emotional wreck.

A fatal heart attack at 46. So tragic.
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Terry
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Junior Carp
I wonder how much the compassion you showed to Helen meant to her. God bless you.
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George K
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Finally
Terry
Aug 8 2007, 10:29 AM
I wonder how much the compassion you showed to Helen meant to her. God bless you.

I'll never know. But, when I was holding her hand, she squeezed it when I told her that story. She kept squeezing until she lost consciousness.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
At 95, going under for surgery - ANY surgery - has to be scary.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Klotz
Middle Aged Carp
George K
Aug 8 2007, 04:51 PM
Did I mention he was 46?

So, he's dead. A short life, with a young and vibrant wife and young children.

Les vieux

Et l'autre reste là, le meilleur ou le pire, le doux ou le sévère
Cela n'importe pas, celui des deux qui reste se retrouve en enfer


And the other one remains there, the better or the worse, the kind or the austere
It doesn't matter, the surviving one finds himself in hell.
Posted Image
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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
Thanks George. Your stories are a good reminder to not take a single day or a loved one for granted.
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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big al
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Bull-Carp
Thank you for sharing those episodes, George. We all can stand a reminder now and then to not take our loved ones or our lives for granted.

I agree with 89th's comment. I worked for awhile in a hospital while I was in college doing maintenance scheduling and equipment inventories for the physical plant department. Most of my duties took me to places like the boiler rooms, laundry, air handling equipment rooms, roof tops, etc. but some equipment was in or accessed through patient areas. The hardest for me were the burn unit and the pediatric ward. The only patient area I generally enjoyed being in was the obstetrics ward. I made a point of walking by the nursery any time I was in the vicinity.

Working in the health professions is not where I could ever see myself.

Big Al
Location: Western PA

"jesu, der simcha fun der man's farlangen."
-bachophile
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TomK
HOLY CARP!!!
Thanks for sharing, George.
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RosemaryTwo
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HOLY CARP!!!
Quote:
 
So, Helen will die.


Very moving, George.

I'll say again that anesthesiologists are among the most compassinate doctors out there. They deal with people right on the edge of hope and fear. The medical side is only half of the work of the drug docs.

Sigh.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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taiwan_girl
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Fulla-Carp
Very touching stories. Shows the fragility between life and death.
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
Bless you for your compassion and personal touch on these peoples' lives, George. I've had days like that, too... One case that shook me up badly, was answering a call for a guy who had collapsed in the gym. Thirty-six years old, peak of physical condition, soldier, athlete, nonsmoker, etc. He was playing basketball in the gym and went for a lay-up. He was dead before he hit the floor. Massive heart attack. We did everything we were supposed to do... Defibrillated, pushed epi, etc. Not a damn thing that anyone could do. Very very sobering...

Thank you for sharing, and thank you for being the kind of person you are. That's really something quite special.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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