Worst situation you've encounterd as an ER nurse

[Enerjan]

I work in L&D, but one of the nurses at our small hospital had been trying to get pregnant. Had endured 6 invitros, paid for by her parents, and had decided to give it up and adopt when her parents talked her into one more try. She got pregnant with twins on try #7, but developed cardiomegaly during the pregnancy, and delivered the twins @ 34wks by C-section. Two, red headed boys, both did well, and left the NICU after a few weeks. But by the end of her pregnancy, her cardiac ejection fraction was only 25%. After the babies 3mo well child visit with their pediatrician, she and her husband went home, put the babies down, and took a nap together. Two hrs later, the husband could not awaken her, and called 911. They brought her to our ER, where they arrived coding her, and continued for several hours. Her cardiologist tried everything, couldn't get her back. When they finally called it, we had to practically shut down the whole hospital, we were all so disraught. I will never forget seeing her husband sitting on the floor holding both the babies, crying, while the code team tried to save her.

[qcumba]

Hi i'm still in training and wil hopefully go into Trauma when I'm finished, but a colleague of mine told me a terrible story the other day, many years ago while working night shift in a trauma unit, a man walked into the unit at about 2am in the morning wearing a large coat, and he appeared to have a large bulge over his abdomen, he was taken to a cubicle by one of the RN's my colleague heard the RN swearing at the patient and went to investigate - the man - who was married to one of the RN's working in one of the other wards - was looking after thier 2 year old daughter and had attempted to have intercourse with her but her pubic bones locked on to him! and in the attempt to get her off him he broke her neck, they had to take him to theatre! so disgusting that anyone could do that to thier baby, and the mother who was a RN couldnt handle it at all and ended up being hospitalized in a psychiatric facility. I was shocked and disgusted when I heard that story.

[kararnmi]

ugh, I didn't even get halfway through the first page and I got weepy. I don't even have PMS! You E.R. nurses have to give yourself big credit, that's some very painful stuff that just scars itself into your soul. All nurses see awful things, DAILY, things that become the norm and desensitize us...this stuff is a whole new level. It really must change you in so many ways. Your really amazing

[Robert F]

We were dispatched three counties over to a multiple victim 10-46(Wreck with Injury). Keep in mind, at the time all we heard is "Trauma patient" as regulations which are in place to keep pilots from getting hasty in their pre-flight checkoff's only permit dispatch to reveal to us "Trauma Patient" or "Medical Patient". Therefore, we must be in the air preparing for any problem that may arise until we hit the scene and LZ command gives us the scoop.

Upon landing at the scene, we witnessed a green neon, and a white cadillac looking vehicle(You couldnt necessarily tell because the car was crushed so bad). Anyways, as we are landing; we are blown away, to say the least; as we realize that what we thought was a piece of the car on the guard rail from above, turned out to be a 17 year old, impaled by it; with obvious signs of morbidity. The kinematics of how that boy went from the vehicle, about 20 feet away; to the guard rail, is beyond me. One trooper on the scene described it as a wrecklessly high amount of speed, coupled with intoxication and a slow motor response(of which I assume he was speaking of the effects on the brain, not on the car). This patient was deceased, no helping him--so once we touched the ground, and my partner hit tail watch(to keep bystanders from walking into the invisible rotor in back), we approached to find 3 other teenagers, the most severe of which having been ejected from the vehicle and showing postural abnormalities, pupils fixed, with signs of transtentorial herniation and or damage to the corpora quadrigemina(brain injury was my specialization area in Paramedic and Nursing School).

What scared me the most was the fact that the paramedic first on the scene stated that this individual was conscious and lucid, and now finding her in this state was a CLASSIC textbook case of epidural hematoma
(as 22-50% of individuals with this presentation are suffering from just this etiology).

As my suspicions turn toward the middle meningeal artery, I cannot help but notice her CPP is changing, and cushing's triad is becoming more and more imminent as the brain stem struggles to regain control, not to mention the paralyzing thought of post-injury oxidative free radicals, the clock at this point was definately not our friend.

Given the urgency of the situation, we load the patient, having initiated two large bore lines, put some mannitol on board, administer a few other pharmacological regimens, and transport this patient to the receiving trauma center.

From being her nurse in the TICU, I can tell you; this girl was a fighter.(I work as a flight nurse and a TICU nurse, she was my patient in both capacities). She held on for almost 2 months, in a chronic vegetative state, and then as if to say "my work here is done", one night, a friend was visiting and had apologized for something, soon after she slipped out of this world.

I had always found it romantic, the notion that the world would stop when I depart it. However, the reality is far less sweet.

If we could light a candle on this Earth for every loved one that we lost, we would set this world on fire.