A bad day at work yesterday....it was tripping along quite nicely...we were well staffed...I'd even beaten my own best score at 'Zombie Gunship'...
...and then at about 17h50,just before my evening meal break,ShufflingBob called me to the resus room to look at a baby...
...a 13 month old baby who had a number of serious congenital health problems...
...necessitating a colostomy...
...who had been vomiting more than 15 times a day, every day,since Wednesday...
...who had seen the GP on Wednesday (and got given Amoxil) and on Friday (and got given Erythromycin)...
...and who was pale...grey coloured...with an oxygen saturation of 72%...
...a respiratory rate of 84...
...and a pulse of 180...
...the baby was in a peri-arrest situation...
...so we started the ALS protocol, which in our case,-because we are an isolated, free-standing Unit-,means phoning an emergency ambulance so that the baby could be transferred to the Peads ER...
...ShufflingBob called at 17h55 and they promised us that "help was on the way"...
...at about 18h15 someone phoned again and was told that there were no ambulances available...
...and wouldn't be for some time...
...at 18h30 YummyMummyNurse phoned to say that we were ambu-bagging the baby and were poised to start the PEA algorithm...
...the ambulance arrived at 18h40...
I phoned 2 hours later and the baby was still in resus with everyone who is anyone (locally) in paediatrics , working on the baby.
I pretend that I don't have PTSD but the rest of the evening turned sour and I spend most of my meal break crying and shaking if I am honest.
And so I read my beloved 'Sunday Times' where my attention was caught by the following 2 stories...
Work-dodging afoot
An unemployed man was determined that nobody would assess him as fit for work — so he sawed off one of his feet and threw it into an oven. Police in Mitterlabill, southern Austria, said the 56-year-old had been due to attend a meeting at the labour office to see if he was able to take on a job.
A spokesman explained that officers “looked in the oven and were able to recover the foot. It was taken to the hospital, but was so badly burnt that it cannot be sewn back on.”
Umbilical cord theft
Three men have been convicted of stealing an umbilical cord from a flat near Stockholm. Police caught them as they tried to escape, and found money, jewellery and the cord.
The child’s father told the Mitt i Soderort newspaper: “We had saved our newborn baby’s umbilical cord as a memory, like some people keep a lock of their children’s hair.”
As always...hug your kids and those you love tonight.
Hope the little scrap of life survived and I can understand why your day soured - a heavy burden to carry.
ReplyDeleteAnd the world is full - but not quite to the top - of stupid people. (But then there are the nice ones to keep us sane).
Respect.
Anna :o]
I wonder why the officers thought to look in the oven.
ReplyDelete