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the unit is still full of incredibly sick people, and there still hasn't been a day someone hasn't gotten shot. in fact, two nights ago (when i was on call) a 4 year old girl was shot in the belly. she is doing fine, but only after a major operation. a spent the whole day wondering how someone could do such a thing.
the other patient that has been consuming my thoughts is the young woman who was shot on the fourth of july. she continues to suffer, and is on something called ECMO now, which stands for extracorpeal membrane oxygenation. it is basically a lung bypass machine. after being shot and having surgery, she went into severe ARDS, which stands for acute respiratory distress syndrome. this is where the lungs basically become damaged, go into shock and are unable to oxygenate or ventillate the body. this condition has a very very high mortality rate. in trauma patients, especially young ones, there is hope that if you place them on ECMO, you can rest the lungs, give them time to heal, and the problem will reverse. being on ECMO, however, means that there is little else that can be done, and the patient is in serious danger of succumbing to their injuries. there are numerous complications to using ECMO, including bleeding to death because being put of the machine requires thining the blood out be able to run it through the "prosthetic lung".
so this young girl is on ECMO, and she has been getting blood transfusions at a rate of more than 12 units/day. her face and body are so swollen that you can barely make out her eyes, her lips, her nose, the creases in her palms or fingers. she is so sick. i have often wondered what she really looks like
yesterday when i came in to the unit her friends and family had hung up pictures of her all around her bed...on the cardiac monitor, above the headboard, on the lung bypass machine and on an IV pole. there were pictures everywhere, of a beautiful young woman, surrounded by her friends, smiling, glowing. i looked up at the pictures and down at her poor struggling body and a sadness just filled every part of me.
what an amazing family she has. even in putting up those pictures they force everyone to recognize that all the effort we are putting in is valid. that we really are working to save a life, not just an empty body lying on a bed.
a young woman 17 years old survived ECMO in our unit a few months ago...so there is hope that it can work again. but everyone says this woman is much more sick than the last. it will be a miracle if she survives.
the violence that effects this country, especially in the inner city, especially directed against blacks and other minorities, has never been this real. tupac and biggie and 50 cent and whoever else that raps about thug life weren't just making that stuff up. everytime i hear some of that on the radio on my way home from work, i can connect to it in a whole new way. i see the destruction that poverty and violence and guns cause. i see it and i am being trained to deal with it in a very practical way. guns are one of the worse tools we, as human beings, ever created.
the other patient that has been consuming my thoughts is the young woman who was shot on the fourth of july. she continues to suffer, and is on something called ECMO now, which stands for extracorpeal membrane oxygenation. it is basically a lung bypass machine. after being shot and having surgery, she went into severe ARDS, which stands for acute respiratory distress syndrome. this is where the lungs basically become damaged, go into shock and are unable to oxygenate or ventillate the body. this condition has a very very high mortality rate. in trauma patients, especially young ones, there is hope that if you place them on ECMO, you can rest the lungs, give them time to heal, and the problem will reverse. being on ECMO, however, means that there is little else that can be done, and the patient is in serious danger of succumbing to their injuries. there are numerous complications to using ECMO, including bleeding to death because being put of the machine requires thining the blood out be able to run it through the "prosthetic lung".
so this young girl is on ECMO, and she has been getting blood transfusions at a rate of more than 12 units/day. her face and body are so swollen that you can barely make out her eyes, her lips, her nose, the creases in her palms or fingers. she is so sick. i have often wondered what she really looks like
yesterday when i came in to the unit her friends and family had hung up pictures of her all around her bed...on the cardiac monitor, above the headboard, on the lung bypass machine and on an IV pole. there were pictures everywhere, of a beautiful young woman, surrounded by her friends, smiling, glowing. i looked up at the pictures and down at her poor struggling body and a sadness just filled every part of me.
what an amazing family she has. even in putting up those pictures they force everyone to recognize that all the effort we are putting in is valid. that we really are working to save a life, not just an empty body lying on a bed.
a young woman 17 years old survived ECMO in our unit a few months ago...so there is hope that it can work again. but everyone says this woman is much more sick than the last. it will be a miracle if she survives.
the violence that effects this country, especially in the inner city, especially directed against blacks and other minorities, has never been this real. tupac and biggie and 50 cent and whoever else that raps about thug life weren't just making that stuff up. everytime i hear some of that on the radio on my way home from work, i can connect to it in a whole new way. i see the destruction that poverty and violence and guns cause. i see it and i am being trained to deal with it in a very practical way. guns are one of the worse tools we, as human beings, ever created.
posted by heyrod at 12:40 PM
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