Just when we thought that we were due for a quiet night in the ER, the emergency tones sounded; from the sound of them, we knew that it was a bad one.
We were instructed to be at the ready once the ambulance pulled up at the back bay. The ambulance was already on its way to the ER, the ER doctor in charge told us. The ambulance would be here in less than ten minutes.
Apparently, a man had been involved in a fight at a local bar; he ended up on the wrong end of the knife. He got stabbed in the chest.
According tot he paramedic report, the man was unconscious and unresponsive. He was getting full CPR: no pulse or breathing was present. He had been down for over five minutes. When we heard that, our hearts sank: brain damage could occur anywhere over that time; it was likely that he probably incurred some. Things did not look at all good for the man in question.
We soon heard the siren of the ambulance approaching; it soon died in mid-wail as it pulled up to the back bay. Already a team of us were at the door, waiting to receive the patient. Once we got him loaded onto the stretcher, we would rush him to the ER and try to save his life. The adrenaline was pumping; we knew we had to act fast once the man was placed in our care.
The man was put onto the gurney in one smooth motion. One paramedic was kneeling on the gurney, pumping the man's chest; another was bagging him via an Ambu bag every few seconds. IVs had already been established, and a heart monitor revealed a quivering, dying heart rate. The man's color was shitty at best; he looked like warmed-over death. Even a zombie probably looked better next to this guy, I remember thinking.
The guy had been stabbed in the chest. The knife was sticking up out of his chest; blood was pumping out every time the one paramedic pushed on his chest. We don't know if an artery was hit, or if the guy had been stabbed in the heart or lungs: an emergency chest X-ray would reveal the tale.
Arterial blood gases and other tests were quickly performed. The tests revealed that the man, a Hispanic male, probably in his early to middle 20's, was on his way to checking out. He was in terrible shape. The X-rays revealed the worst: he had been stabbed in the heart. There was no way on God's green earth that we could possibly save him; he was probably going to end up dying anyway, even with all our best efforts.
Not even a half hour later, the guy was, indeed pronounced dead. He was beyond saving. A deafening hush filled the ER once the guy had been de-tubed and taken off the monitors, and a sheet was placed over him. A trip to the morgue would be in order for the man. And the ER doctor would soon have the difficult task of notifying the man's family that their loved one didn't make it. The mood of the ER was very somber.
It was a hard kick in the gut for all of us. This incident would probably stay with us for a while, as all fatal outcomes seemed to do. We were all feeling bad for the man, and especially his family. The man didn't deserve to end up like he did, but apparently, God had other plans. We wreen't going to question God, but on the other hand, the man deserved to live: he was far too young.
~Anonymous, R.N., Nashville, Tennessee.
