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Emergency Room Diaries #3: Baby Code Blue! (By Gloria M. Trainor, R.N.) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Monday, July 26, 2004
Rated "PG" by the Author.
A nurse tries to save the life of an innocent baby, but all attempts were unsuccessful.
It was the worst type of call imaginable. A man came bursting through the doors of our E.R., crying out that his baby needed help. The baby was wrapped in a blue blanket, and it looked at first like it was sleeping; but the waxy, blue appearance of the skin told us otherwise. At the sight of the blue-tinged skin of the infant, my heart was stabbed, and we knew that the situation was serious, very serious.
We took the unconscious infant from the father's arms, and we immediately took it to the resuscitation table, where we immediately started to work over it. The baby was a male, approximately 3 to 5 months old; he was just a tiny little thing, with wispy, light-brown hair and fat arms and legs. He looked relatively healthy, but he was unconscious, and we were dismayed to find out that he wasn't breathing. His small chest wasn't moving, and he was flaccid and limp.
We started doing CPR and artificial respiration on the little guy while another nurse hooked the baby up to EKG leads; and we were disheartened to learn that he had no pulse. The tracing on the EKG monitor was flatline, and the alarm was emitting a high, shrill sound.
No matter what we did for that little guy, we could not bring him back. He was just too far gone when he had been brought in, and when we decided that he couldn't be revived, a doctor soon pronounced the little fellow dead. It was a half hour later when the infant's time of death had been recorded, and I was then left with the nasty task at hand: to let the crying father know that his little boy had just died.
I told the fellow of his son's death, and of course, the man collapsed into a torrent of tears as howls of anguish escaped from his lips. He fell to the floor, crying out, "Oh, Jesus, Oh, God, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Oh, my God, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Not my baby! Oh, my God, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" My own eyes pricked with tears at the sight and sound of the grief-stricken man, and my heart went out to him. I wished we could have saved the baby's life, but unfortunately, it wasn't to be. For whatever reason, the baby died, and there was nothing we could have done to have prevented it from happening.
i can hear the anguish in the father's voice, and in the nurse's words as she pens her heartshattering memories--very well conveyed emotion. powerfully written. *tears*
Spoken Word
This CD will touch the deepest inner part of your humanness and spirit, you will never be the same after listening to the depths of struggle, the reality of life, the touching voice of truth. It will shock you, move you to tears. It w
It was the worst type of call imaginable. A man came bursting through the doors of our E.R., crying out that his baby needed help. The baby was wrapped in a blue blanket, and it looked at first like it was sleeping; but the waxy, blue appearance of the skin told us otherwise. At the sight of the blue-tinged skin of the infant, my heart was stabbed, and we knew that the situation was serious, very serious.
