How about missing that which is right in front of you? A scratch ticket with the winning numbers? The solution to a puzzle? A street sign?
\nHere\u00c3\u00ads one of mine. Late fall, 1980, while I was working at Emerson Hospital as a respiratory therapist. <\/p>\n
\u00c3\u00ac I feel sick. Is it hot in here? I\u00c3\u00adm sweating, but I feel cold.\u00c3\u00ae<\/p>\n
Martha\u00c3\u00ads forehead glistened with small beads of perspiration. Adjusting the oxygen in her air conditioned room, and nearing the end of my shift, I was in a hurry to finish. Minutes before, she was attached to monitors in the Coronary Care Unit; now deemed stable, she had moved a floor closer to home. <\/p>\n
Martha wiped her face with the loose sleeve of her johnny and repeated her question, \u00c3\u00acWhy am I sweating?\u00c3\u00ae She looked worried and embarrassed to be complaining, a mother accustomed to taking care of, not being cared for. I looked, I listened and I dismissed it all. Here I stood, in my white lab jacket; there she lay, looking for reassurance. That I could give. Help, apparently not.<\/p>\n
I left Martha, sweating, but not diaphoretic. Had I thought diaphoretic would I have alerted her doctor? The head nurse? Diaphoretic implies a medical cause for sweat. Associated with heart attacks it is often accompanied by a sense of foreboding. In hospitals it is rarely mentioned without its companion, chest pain. But I only saw sweat.<\/p>\n
I told her, \u00c3\u00acYou\u00c3\u00adll be okay. ”<\/p>\n
Ten minutes later, and back in our office preparing my patient report for Dave, the gangly night guy, I heard the code. I didn’t need a nurse to shout the room number. I didn\u00c3\u00adt need to stare at Martha\u00c3\u00ads upside down face to know it was she. Between chest compressions, I slid the endotracheal tube past her beige vocal cords.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How about missing that which is right in front of you? A scratch ticket with the winning numbers? The solution to a puzzle? A street sign? Here\u00c3\u00ads one of mine. Late fall, 1980, while I was working at Emerson Hospital … Continue reading