At Henry General Hospital they had "on screen" cardiac monitors in each CCU room. The monitors were placed above and behind the patients head on the wall. For the patient to see the monitor they had to strain their neck and look almost straight up to their right. The sound was always turned off so the patients could not hear the constant beeping of each heartbeat, which would aggravate anyone.
One weekend they got a patient in the CCU from the ER who had suffered a mild cardiac injury. After his admission he had undergone a Cardiac Catherization to evaluate the blockage. The Doctors felt that the restriction was not severe enough to even consider the patient, (I'll call Fred), as a by-pass candidate.
I stopped by his room periodicaly to check on his oxygen cannula placemet and flow rate. Each time I did Fred had his neck strained in a very uncomfortable position and was watching the heartbeats cascading across his monitor, looking very scared and worried.
I tried talking to him, telling him not to be concerned about the monitor, and to watch the television instead. But he continued to watch the monitor. I mentioned him to the nurses and they tried to calm his fears, again, to no avail. I asked the nurses if they could turn off the monitor in his room and was told that, unlike the telemetry units that relied on radio transmissions for patients in other parts of the hospital,
it was a hardwire connection directly to the monitors in the nurses station, and couldn't be turned off.
The next Friday when I returned to work, I was doing rounds in CCU and inquired about Fred. The nurses told me that Fred had gotten progressively
worse over the week and on Friday had "coded" and died that day about 1:30pm.
Fred hadn't been picked up by the funeral home yet and when I went to remove the oxygen equipment from his room his neck was frozen in the same disjointed position I had left him in Sunday night, staring over his shoulder at the monitor.
I believe Fred had worried and stressd himself to death watching the monitor, and when did die, he saw it happen on the screen before he slipped into unconsiousness.
Scary, huh?
I truly believe you can worry and stress your self to death and that your overall health depends in large part on your state of mind.
Walt,
Incredible story. I worked in as a CNA in a nursing home for many years and I firmly agree. Worrying adds stress and stress leads to heart attacks and deaths. I enjoy reading your stories, my friend.
I believe you can die from worry and stress...that's why I hardly ever go to a doctor....do damn scared they tell my I have cancer...I will die from worry for sure!!
If you worry you die if you don't you also die....so why worry for the longest time!!
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At Henry General Hospital they had "on screen" cardiac monitors in each CCU room. The monitors were placed above and behind the patients head on the wall. For the patient to see the monitor they had to strain their neck and look almost straight up to their right. The sound was always turned off so the patients could not hear the constant beeping of each heartbeat, which would aggravate anyone.
