Taking Ourselves for Granted

"Coding" is a term doctors use for someone in cardiopulmonary arrest. A couple of weeks ago, a nurse on the floor had coded in the evening. She was attending to a patient when she collapsed on him in cardiac arrest. Supposedly, he tried the call button, but no one came (a lesson for hospitals to be extra vigilant of those call buttons!). Fortunately, the patient was young and managed to wriggle out from under her to alert the nurses' station. Immediately, the nurses (in tears, as it was one of their own) and doctors were working on the now-blue nurse. They had worked 45 minutes on her and managed to get her breathing again. She was in ICU and managed to say some words a week later. This weekend, she visited the floor walking slowly with her parents on either side and smiling. She was tall and slim. The nurses welcomed and watched while she made her way like a new toddler making first steps, apparently lucid and without the damage a lack of oxygen can incur.

It must be amazing to be able to bring someone back like that. I was told by M, that a very low percentage of people who code, actually survive. Pretty grim statistics. The amazing fact about this nurse was that she's only 24 yrs old! I was shocked when I heard this. But as M said, it's probably her young age that really helped her survive. And who knows what the circumstances were surrounding her condition. Perhaps it was an undetected problem found only now.

Still, it's awe-inspiring to think of all the systems in each of us that make us "tick", so to speak. Many processes and systems continue it's work without a bit of thinking on our part. It would be best if we did our part in taking care of ourselves, the best we can.