The hardest thing about doing a rural prac near the town where you grew up is that if something happens to someone, there is a good chance you know the person, or are close to someone else who does. Even though I grew up 50 km from the place where I am doing rural, the hospital services many towns in the surrounding area.
I was on a ward seeing patients in the morning when there was a code Blue in the hospital. Having just been at Charlies where code blues happen at least 5 times a day, I didn’t think too much about it other than I hoped the person was ok.
Later in the day I was standing at the nurses desk when I saw a family walk in that I knew. There was only the single mum and 1 of the 3 sons who came in (there were 3 sons, one of which was severely disabled with CP and in a disability care home).
As this ward was primarily for elderly people, I assumed it was a situation involving a grandparent. I also wondered why the other son wasn’t there. I looked at the two family members and had never in my life seen people look like that. The nurses then told me that a young 17-year-old boy had died that morning when the code blue was called.
I felt shocked at first and couldn’t really put 2 and 2 together. When it hit home that the other son had died that morning it was very overwhelming and upsetting.
The circumstances surrounding his death are still uncertain, however he had been admitted the night before with tonsillitis and there was a very very tragic medical complication with the Rx.
This was a very robust, high-energy young guy who died within a matter of minutes.
I know dealing with death is always hard, its just made harder when its such a young person and also seeing the family walking into the hospital to see their loved one for the first time. As I was in contact with the nurses as well I also got detail about the medical side of things, which made it even harder.
It all happened so quick and I was in shock for quite a while. It has been playing over in my head since it happened a few days ago, so I hoped writing it down might help to deal with it.
I found it really helpful chatting to some of the staff who had also known them. I also found people really support each other, especially in a country town as it is a pretty tight nit community.
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1 comment:
Alli.. just wanted to say what I am sure everyone else is thinking too - I'm sorry to hear about something so tragic happening to people you know.
Patients passing away is something we will all encounter, but is very unfortunate to see so early in your career. And it's so much harder because you know the people and the unfortunate circumstances which surround it. Take care and I hope the rest of your placement goes well.
PS know you've got tons of support around you, but call if you need :)
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