ER internship

I initially wrote this short paper for my ER internship. I post it here so I can share my experience with you.

I still remembered that day was like any other day. I was helping others moving around the stuff. Then, I heard the speaker announced, “We have a Code Blue!” Before I arrived the fast track which was located at the front side of emergency room, there were a least ten medical stuffs waiting outside of the room 3. Then, I heard the sound of the ambulance. Here he came, an 80 years male lied on the bed and breathed the oxygen from the oxygen tank. At the first glace, I didn’t know what kind of problem he had because he didn’t have any visible injury. Then, I overheard the doctor said the patients’ heart was not beating. While I slowly recognized the severity of situation, all the medical stuffs already started to work. They cut his clothes and took them away. Then, they attached tubes and small electrodes on his body and prepared to give him electrical shock. While all of this was going on, one nurse was doing CPR to the patient. Then, they took the picture of his chest x ray. And, they shock him several times. Almost half an hour has passed, there was still no sign of heart beat and doctor wanted to give up. (I later learned that this was what they learned in the medical school. For the elderly patients, half an hour is enough. For the younger patients, they would do it much longer.) Then, the patient’s relatives came in time. When doctor tried to explain the situation to them, they started to cry. They looked at the doctor and seemed to beg him for one last try. Doctor did respond to their request. He asked medical stuffs to give patient several shots and also an electrical shock. Within next twenty minutes, they found the first sign of continuous heart beat, even thought it was very faint. At that time, doctor asked the relatives to call on patient’s name. Then, slowly and gradually the heart beat started to stabilize. He was even able to response to his wife and daughter by squeezing their hands. Before I left the emergency room, the patient was not in the critical condition any more.

This experience reminded me how fragile our live could be. It is true that our advanced medical knowledge can save many people’s lives, but there are still many things that we cannot do. I remember when I asked my supervisor how many times they got to save someone’s life like that within a year, he told me, “Not a lot. It was probably less than two. If they came in dead, they were dead.”

Note: You probably wonder what I was doing while all of these were happening right in front of me. I can tell you that I was in shock. I wanted to cry when I saw the relatives of the patient start to cry. I didn't make myself very useful at that time. However, I kept praying to the God. I prayed that" Please don't let him die in front of me. Please." And, God answered my prayer!!!