Friday, May 04, 2007

Not When I'm Sleep-deprived

I was just starting to visit dreamworld at 6 o'clock in the morning when i received a referral that one of our patients at the private room arrested. Have to pull my consciousness out of this dreamed, dreamworld of mine just so i could attend to that patient.

He was the father of one of the employees of this hospital. In short, it's such a big deal once the resident on duty fails or would be late in attending to the patient. I came to his room right after i received the referral from the nurse. My spirit still tailing behind me. It might have just reunited with my body when i was already performing CPR.

The employee wasnt around when the event happened. The ones left were her sisters. They were afraid of her or maybe afraid to be blamed of the patient's sudden death. Thus, i have to perform the CPR for about 30 minutes. Gave her more time to digest and to accept what was happening when she came to the room, before i pronounce her father's demise. That was unexpected actually. They were expecting to be home today. Not the patient going home to heaven, alone.

She was in denial. Guilty at the same time for failing to attend to her father's needs the night before this unexpected event occurred. She was requesting her father to be back to life and to live another week more. Sheesh! She was calling his spirit to go back to his now, cold body. Good thing my spirit's now reunited with my body when this happened or else, a mixed up might have happened. My spirit inside this patient's dying body, and an old man's spirit inside a toxic resident's body who was disturbed from visiting dreamworld. Haha! I'm becoming spiritual! Only happens when im sleep-deprived.

After this "spiritual" experience, i went down to the wards. Have to give the outgoing nurse on duty a little piece of my mind. He failed to check on the progress of his patient's chemotherapy. He sort of committed a blunder. He denies though that he was at fault. I asked him to submit an incident report to explain himself.

While talking with him, one of our patient's folks created a commotion. He was shouting at the alley asking who poked his daughter's mouth and losing some of her incisors in the process. I realized that he was the father of the patient i intubated earlier. I asked the nurse to bring him to the station where i am seated. I wanted to talk to him in order to explain his patient's condition. He was hysterical to the point that he asked me to leave my seat in order for me to see his patient. He seemed to be blaming me for what ive done. What i did was a life saving measure. Noone has the right to question it.

I did not leave my seat. Instead, i asked him to come to me and to sit in front of me if he wanted some confrontations. Uh-oh! Dont provoke me when im sleep-deprived. I'm a graceful woman but never when im provoked. My voice was as high as my left eyebrow and i was seated higher than he is. He, seating on the monoblock chair and i, seated on the station counter. Look who's taller now? I just dont want to appear like David facing Goliath. He was kinda big you know? Well, it's just a matter of strategic positioning if you want to win.

Heck! I'd rather be sleepless because of a lot of admissions but never because of some altercations. My energy consumption increases and my tolerance level to its lowest threshold when im subjected to arguments much more in a sleep-deprived mode. If in case arguments arent avoided, just dont let it happen when im sleep-deprived for i'd rather wish ill talk to you in my sleep.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess some people just don't get it. Hehe, that's a good one, strategically positioning yourself higher to gain a psychological advantage in an argument... :-)

Have a great weekend, Angel. ;-)

The Angry Medic said...

Awww...now that was a charming story. And smart move, sitting higher than him and staring him down like that! Am gonna have to write that down somewhere for future use (not that I'd have to use it or anything. I, of course, am very macho and hence 6 feet tall. Cough.)

I like your blog. I'll be back!

AngelMD-No-More said...

snglguy:
in any game, if size would be the problem, strategic positioning will do the trick...hehe nah, i jaz wanted to show him who's in the authority during that time. i might be disadvantaged in size but he must know where he should place himself...have a nice weekend too.

angrymedic:
thnx for dropping by.=) been using this trick several times and it definitely works for me. wat can i do? my relatives might have come from "the shire"...hehe