Your First Day (In My Shoes)

I was ripped from my dreams at about 4:30 AM this morning when I had to jump up to get ready for work. For the first fifteen minutes I slept while my alarm clock buzzed away; I knew I could sleep for another fifteen minutes without being late. I dragged myself out of bed and shut off the alarm, where I then collapsed in the shower. This is my daily morning routine. I'll lay at the bottom of my bathtub and let the hot water pour on me for about twenty minutes until I regained consciousness. After my shower I dried off to look in the foggy mirror, I notice everyday how my face has aged, god… I'm so vain. From the bathroom, I could hear my cell phone ring. I walked down the hall towards my bedroom until I could recognize the ringtone: it's the hospital. I move a bit more quick and as I reached for the phone, I could hear my pager buzz radically. I answered the phone and then went to my pager, which read "911". The voice on the phone was a recording: "Attention emergency room staff, we have a Code 5, assistance is required." This is when I regretted that I slept that extra fifteen minutes. I threw on my clothes and left.

I arrived at the hospital at approximately 5:15, ten minutes after the code was called. I jogged into the emergency room and went straight to work. This is when I couldn't believe my eyes. The emergency room is made up of four wings. We call it the north, south, east, and west wings. Since I'm located in the city... each wing contains about 25 beds. There is always three doctors on call and at least 10 emergency room technicians, along with about 15 or 20 nurses. The job market for medicine is failing; we only have 2 emergency doctors, 6 ER techs, and 16 nurses on staff. Every emergency, I'm called in for every emergency... I miss so much class because of people's lack of desire to be a doctor, tech, or nurse.

There were "mass causalities" (mascal for short). We had seven people admitted from an accident in suburbs... the morning commute is never pretty. Apparently, a woman lost control of her vehicle and slammed into two cars, which slammed into other cars. I immediately dropped my bag and began to help sort through the chaos. We had four people with apparent broken bones, one person in horrible shape that needed to be transferred to intensive care. The other two people were in moderate pain and needed to be checked out.

Since it’s against the law (HIPAA), and my own moral standards, I will not disclose names. However, I'll give you some names that I made up. “Sarah”, 24, had a compound fracture of her left elbow. Her blood loss was minimal but in severe pain. Having a medicine administering certification, I administered her painkillers until the orthopedic doctor could arrive. While we waited for Sarah to be seen, I moved so someone else. I took over for “Doctor Maynard”, whom was hooking up Will, 17, to an IV. Under orders, three nurses and I rushed Will to the third floor intensive care unit. After we left will we, rushed back to hear code blue east projected over the intercoms. The east wing was the entrance to the emergency room; a mother had just walked her daughter into the emergency room. Her face was swollen, her skin was red swollen, and she was barely breathing. I immediately noticed she was in anaphylactic shock. I grabbed the nearest nurse where bagged (put her under artificial breathing) and administered epinephrine. The epinephrine solution, given intravenously, gave her heart more power to beat, and more help to fight off the swelling. After she stabilized, I rushed off to assist Dr. Maynard with the other crash patients. I worked until 9:30, where I left to go to school until 5 PM. I then ate -fast food once again - and I returned to work. Thank god, it was a slow night.... I worked from 7 - 11. What a busy day. (I promise not to make all these posts this long.)