EMERGENCY 🤕🤒
Greet smiley RN at the fish- bowl command centre then head off into the mix of unwell humanity
What’ll the day bring? Slight nerves give an edge working in a place like this, keeps you on yer toes.
People everywhere, organised chaos.
Police, bodies slumped on trolleys, paramedics queue with their unwell human cargo, “not too bad today” says one. A baby wails in the background. A young beetroot faced lass is “finding it hard to breathe.”
First up.
Gigantic human of a man, breathing hard, curled in a ball, feet dangling off the end of a trolley, white hospital blanket pulled up over his head. His entire body shaking, face grey, teeth chattering
Sepsis âž• drug withdrawal
Vomiting up the methadone and sedatives that kept him steady, off the hard stuff
He’s in a bad way an emergency is called
Teams swoop
Everyone has a job
IV access gained with ultrasound guide, steady doctor hands into meaty, tattoo covered arms
Massive doses of double/ triple checked antibiotics pumped into his huge frame, paracetamol, painkillers, sedative. “Kill a horse” springs to mind but this pharmaceutical cocktail is exactly what he needs
He starts to feel better, “You’re all great, I’ve been trying not to get angry”
So satisfying to help, glad he kept his temper.
WOMENS’s THEATRE 🩸🩸
“Coming from DEM, active bleeding”
She arrives, crumpled on the trolley
Sheet – white face, tiny voice, eyes shut
Blood seeping, pooling beneath her, bag of blood dripping into her vein, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip
We swoop, urgency, speed, focus, no words needed
In the blink, anaesthesia, surgeon, a simple surgical procedure, bleeding stopped
Looking at each other
The big sighs
The mini debriefs
The “thank god’s”
Later at home thinking, another time
Another place,
Another country
She would have died
MATERNITY v EMERGENCY 🤒👩‍🍼
Midwifing in maternity, delightful task of weighing newborn babies going home
Wheeling them to the scales one at time in goldfish bowl hospital cots
Quickly, gently, wrangling them out of clothes and nappy
Placing them on a blanket nest on the scale, tiny bums in the air
Talking to them, shushing them, apologising for cold hands
Beep! All done
Just as quick, dress them em up again, straight back to mum’s arms
Next day a nurse shift in emergency, the polar opposite example of human … a murderous looking character from the worst horror movie, shuffling past shackled , unkempt , muttering to himself, three big towering cops in tow (thank god)
And angry muscle man next door, baring his chest, looking ready to pounce, scoring three security guards, one cop, all poised, ready for anything
Both these men once tiny, precious newborn babies too. What happened to them in the intervening years, what’s their story, what contributed to the state they’re in?
Do we really want to know?
Lindsey Crossan Registered Nurse/Midwife