I woke early this morning in a cold sweat, searching frantically for the body of the physician I was working with-- In my dream he had gone down in trauma 2, not unexpected, a year post a massive heart surgery, still has chest pain often enough to make the staff nervous, but the department was just a little to busy to be doing this.
My arms ached, having done enough rounds of compressions for two doses of epi. I think in my dream I had hoisted him off the floor and onto the stretcher myself. Why is it that when you really need a department full of help all you can find is a first semester student nurse with the deer-in-the-headlights look or the "I want to be a med student when I leave high school" volunteer. You hand one of them the radio and walk them through how to call for assistance while working this code. The nursing student who had asked to "do as many IV's as possible today" is now pale and backing away from the tray...
The new staff directive still echoing from my training days-- No we don't use the code blue button in this department. Generally only one MD in house, maybe 2 nurses and the first rule that I was taught-- "never use the code button in this department, we are the code team". Great. Yes, I did push it-- no, it doesn't work. Remind me to let maintenance know about that.
Answers to the questions that are coming.... No, from where I sat in my own bed, even with the lights, on I didn't find the body of the MD, only the pillow I had thrown off my bed (the one that had been at the top of the stretcher). And yes, my wall does have an indent, not the desired 1/2 chest depth, but still, I worked the heck out of that 'chest' with my rounds of compressions.-- Bet my spouse is glad that I was the only one in the bed at the time....
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