Top 5

Everyone has their "memorable" patients. I often like to look back on those patients to give me a smile, or remind me that things could be a whole lot worse.

I'm going to share with you my top 5 patients of my career thus far. I will start from five and lead you up to my fondest memory. Now, some of these memories are happy/joyful, some are about stupidity. Which each person you take care of, you never know what you are going to get.

5. "John I coded 10 times for this RT but I'm still alive and walking Doe" : This is one of my more recent cases. This patient came in for a typical sickness into the ER. Deteriorated very quickly. Pt ended up intubated and on the ventilator. This is where the coding began. This patient's stay in the hospital total was astronomical. I alone (40 hours a week, night shift), coded them 10 times. There were times when we said to the family, "John will be lucky to make it through the night" Yet, John kept going. Every time was harder than the next. A few months after admission, a very aggressive course of treatment..I recently watch John walk around the nurses station. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I went over and said, "well, you look awesome" which received a  large smile from the patient. They got discharged shortly after that. Wonders never cease to amaze.

4. "Hick I shot my neighbor over dog food Hillbilly" : Get ready to laugh. I'm hanging out in my trauma bay one night. It was a warm southern night, which always brings out the crazy. I heard the medic phone ring, and my ears perked up. The medic kept breaking up, and after the MD's many "repeat that" I just stopped listening. As the trauma was paged out, and I started prepping the trauma bay for intubation the ED doc comes in and says, "well, its a status post gunshot due to Alpo." I stopped what I was doing and said, "umm, excuse me?" As it turns out, two people were involved, one more injured than the other. Hick 'A' and Hick 'B' were neighbors. Hick 'B' was trying to help their neighbor out and bought Hick 'A' some dog food. Well, as both neighbors and medics will tell you this is how it went. Hick 'A' did not like the brand of food Hick 'B' bought, so he shot Hick 'B' in the foot with a 22 rifle. Well, Hick 'B' pretty pissed off, went inside, came out and shot Hick 'A' with a shot gun in the chest. *Sigh* Moral of the story, don't buy anything for your neighbor.

3. "Joey my RT saved my ass when I self extubated myself Wiredshut" : This is one of two patients that are near and dear to my heart. This was during my first year post school. I'm called to the ER to do an ABG on a patient before surgery. All seemed well. Family and patient seemed very nice. Who would have thought that post-op I would learn about their entire lives. Out of surgery Joey came to me, nasally intubated, with his jaw wired shut. So began the process of getting him off the ventilator. Did I mention, his leg was fixated and arm was casted? With the wire cutters looming over his bedside, I began my process. He woke up, calm and collected and listened to everything I told him. The tube remained in for 4 days, until Joey got a hold of it at 0200 and pulled. He began choking, coughing, and gasping. His mom, came into the hall and yelled for me. As I hit the room, all I could think was "don't cut the wires." Cutting his wires meant more surgery and more time. I pulled the tube the rest of the way out, fished a catheter down to suction him out, sat him straight up, and the "you will take deep breaths and do what you need, because I'm not cutting your wires" Jump 2 weeks: out of ICU and on the floors. Recovery was going well. Mom, Dad, Oldest Brother, Youngest brother and sister...I knew them all. Spent time off shift, hanging out. Who does that? Someone who becomes invested in their patients and families.  Jump 3 weeks: Joey is home, getting PT, doing well. His mom called and asked if I would come and visit. So, I spent my Saturday afternoon hanging with them. I still get a Christmas card every year from his Mom. Joey went on to college and is now in med school. He wants to be the people that once helped him. We send emails back and forth. He was the patient that taught me never to panic. Always check out the options and there is always a better one than panicking.

2. "Stanley I was the first person to make my RT cry Sweetikins" : There once was a patient who hated all the staff. Even though his wife was with him 24/7, he hated the hospital. One morning, I walked into his room, sucked it up and said "ok, no more goofing around, you want to go home? you will do your treatments" I then put the biggest smile on my face and waited. He stared at me, looked at his wife, turned back and smiled at me for the first time I had ever noticed. He said, "ok, but just for you." I told him "we'd see about that." Mr. Sweetikins was slowly dying of Parkinson's with a host of other issues on this admission. So began the process over the next few days where he would only take treatments and meds...from me. Since I don't work 24/7 it became an issue in my head. So, my bestestok, new person, you will be nice and smile at her too", after some mumbling, he said "ok, feisty girl" So, we traded on and off. His wife was grateful for the company as well. One night shift 3 weeks into this, I went into his room around 0100 for a treatment. He looked at me like he had never before. He said "no treatment" and began to pull off his oxygen and monitor. His wife looked at me helplessly. I watched as she crawled into bed with him. He died a few hours later and I cried. I cried a lot. My bestest and I sent flowers to the funeral. We were both unable to attend. Stanley was the first patient to make me cry, show me how to understand when someone is "ready to go" and how to stick it out even when the patient hates everyone. You just might be the someone they don't hate.

1. "Jane I made my RT fall in love with Trauma Doe" : Simple and quick. I fell in love with trauma on a Friday afternoon. This patient came in to the ER, talking...and went down in front of us. The injury was blunt force trauma, so we cracked the chest. After I had secured the airway, I was told to "hold the lung!" and I remember thinking, "are they shitting me?" Nope, not at all. I reached into the chest cavity and held the lung back while they worked on the heart. I got the trauma bug and never looked back.

I know that was lengthy, but it sums up my top 5 so far, they've all helped make me the RT that I am in one way or another.