A human life under the hands of

I still remember very well my first resuscitation. I was on the staff of the intensive care unit and accompanied as a new and inexperienced colleague, the resuscitation team. The tasks of these Teams Farshid has written a great article.

My heart slipped into my trousers, as the red resuscitation phone rang. On the geriatrics there was an emergency – or, as we like to call it, a “rescue situation”. My experience consisted, until then, exclusively of the Exercises on resuscitation dolls and the theoretical teaching.

Now the day had come. We made our way – a doctor, two experienced nurses, and I. With quick steps, we ran through the corridors and hallways of the hospital. The colleagues held a small talk. I was much too tense to be involved in it. Suddenly my colleague turned to me: “Have you resuscitated?” I answered briefly: “no.” You: “Ok.”

Older lady lifeless in the bed

We left the Elevator on the Station, and looked along the corridor. In front of a room, a nurse stood up and motioned to us. When we arrived in the patient room, we found a lifeless elderly lady in the bed. Two nurses were in the room and had initiated the so-called base measures. The patients were from colleagues already in front of the door was accompanied.

We built up our Packed Equipment, connected the monitor to the patient, and my colleague, the heart took over massage pressure to relieve to the Station nurse. The training regulation provides that a qualified nurse must be able to resuscitation measures. Each nurse is trained in life support measures. However, such emergencies do not occur on many stations so frequently – and for the gentlemen there is, therefore, mostly with the maximum Stress. Unlike in the ICU, you don’t have the regular “real” practice.

Then I should take over. My colleague looked at me and said: “So, Marc, ran…” I walked up to the bed, oriented me on the chest of the patient, put my hands on top of each other, and began, as before, dozens of times on dolls practiced, with the heart-pressure massage.

The rib cage lowers and lifts

It was a very strange feeling, like the chest, under my movements, lowered and again raised. A feeling that I will never forget. Under my hands, I saw the lifeless patient.

The doctor looked at me and said: “be A little bit faster…” My colleague groped for a pulse in the groin of the patient. “You’re doing good – I feel a strong pulse,” she said. After a short time the command of the physician: “Please short Pause – ok, there’s no pulse, continue…”

At the same time the patient received a venous access and was provided with a breathing tube. There is a resuscitation policy. Everything runs according to fixed Patterns: What medications are given, when and what action is being carried out. I was too excited to make to me about these things. But my colleagues made sure that everything was in order. They made clear announcements.

After the patient was first supplied, further we made the nurses. The doctor looked at the patient’s file in detail. He had only a brief, orienting glance get thrown into it and had been informed by the attending nurses about the patient just. Now it was time to get more information. The station doctor had arrived and together, they voted.

The “zero line” on the monitor screen

The patient had still not “spontaneous circulation”. As soon as we stopped the heart massage, the circulation of the patient to a Standstill. On the surveillance monitor has a “zero line”. There was, in spite of the administered drugs, and of our further actions there is no electrical activity in the heart.

After the conversation with the doctor, our doctor introduced us to the patient short. Admission diagnosis, associated diseases, previous treatment history. Then he said: “We reanimate for 30 minutes and the patient is not responding. Further, we don’t know how many minutes she lay now without any circulation in the bed. In view of the pre-existing medical conditions and history, as well as the very poor prognosis, I would put an end to the measures. Has anyone of you concerns?“

Death at 18.30

I included myself at the time – me, the feeling was still missing “” for the Situation. My two colleagues shook the head. I heard the phrase, “then we’ll stop now” and saw how the cardiac massage was stopped. On the Monitor, no activity was more to see. The patient was dead.

In television, the time of death would now come to the sentence: “….” and in fact,

saw my colleague on the clock and I heard: “18.30?” The doctor nodded.

We Packed up our materials. The doctor remained on the Station, to take care of the bureaucracy. With my colleagues, I went back to the ICU. We cleaned the materials used and prepared the emergency equipment for the next use.

No Chance in this case

My colleague gave me a short Feedback: “Everything right. We were able to achieve in this case, nothing more. The forecast was at the beginning very bad.“ At that time I heard the words, mind, but its content.

Since that day, have now passed many years and countless times, such a resuscitation situations repeated themselves. You get Routine. It is at some point everyday.

Often we get the cycle of the patient. Some patients recover completely. Others survive, but with severe brain damage. Others have died in the course of our intensive care unit.

Years later…

I remember a Situation much later, after I had already begun to work as a Mentor and trainer. The resuscitation phone rang and together with a colleague, and a young, inexperienced colleagues, we started to run. On the way to the Station we held small talk. I turned at some point to our new colleagues: “Have you resuscitated?”. He replied: “no.” I said: “Ok.”

Photo: Fotolia / sudok1