I never was so terrified as I was this morning ...

I was working the Emergency Room.  I started working this morning at seven; still have a little over four hours to go yet before I can go home and call it a day.  Anyway, the tones sounded; they alerted us to be on the ready to receive the victim that was on her way to the hospital via ambulance.  The case coming in was a bad one: it was a child (a teenager, really, a female) who was bleeding very badly.

The kid in question  was only fourteen years old.  Apparently she was depressed, so she decided to relieve her misery by cutting herself with a knife.  I guess she wanted to end the pain she was feeling inside; she probably wanted to commit suicide.  Whatever the reason, the young woman, barely past childhood, was bleeding heavily; time was of the essence to get her into the ER and treat her wounds as quickly as possible (as well as getting her stabilized) before she bled to death.

The ambulance was at the trauma bay within moments.  The EMT's got her onto a rolling gurney and ran her to the nearest treatment room, where all the worse-case scenarios were dealt with.  There was blood all over the patient and all over the gurney, not to mention, the EMT's.  The girl was unconscious and extremely pale: her face was as white as a sheet and her lips and eyelids had a faint bluish cast to them, which meant that she was in trouble, serious trouble.  The blood was still pumping out as she was being wheeled into the ER.

We knew we had to act fast in order to save her life.

After we got a quick report, the doctor in charge of the ER started barking out orders.  Get IVS and other lines hooked up.  Get her on monitors and get her vital signs.  Try to staunch the bleeding.  Try to get her to come out of her stupor and constantly watch her breathing and heart, to make sure she didn't go into cardiac/respiratory arrest.  Get blood and other fluids into her to replace the blood she had already lost.

We attacked the situation at hand like a swarm of agitated bees.  We had her clothes cut off of her within moments as we got her plugged in and tried to stop the bleeding.  Some of the wounds were so deep blood was pumping rhythmically; we knew she had to have sliced some arteries (mainly in her wrists, where most of the damage was done).  Lots of whispered prayers were uttered as we worked hard to save the teenager.

Her vital signs were shitty at best.  Her blood pressure was nearly non existant and her heart was working overtime: it was beating rapidly, like a jackhammer.  She was in a deep state of shock; coma wasn't that far behind.  After we treated her wounds, we would probably send her to the ICU where she could be monitored (and treated) further, and then, once she got over this crisis, she would probably have a stint on the mental health floor for troubled children/adolescants.  It was obvsious she would need further help than what we could possibly ever give to her.

I don't know how we did it, but we managed to save young Snow's+ life.  We managed to get her stabilized; less than an hour after she'd arrived by ambulance, she was awake and asking for her mamma.  It was only by a miracle that we managed to pull Snow back from the brink of death, but we knew that our treatment was only the first step in what promised to be a very long and lengthy recovery.  

I am still shaking as I write this down.  Seeing this little girl in such a vulnerable state truly terrified me, especially since I have a teenaged daughter the exact same age as Snow.  I wonder what I would have done if this were my child.  I don't know how I would react.  I know I am supposed to act professionally at my job, but if this had been my child, I know I would have probably lost it in front of God and everybody.  It would be my worst nightmare come to life.

~Babs Geer, RN, Nashville Memorial Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee.

+Not child's real name.