Lesson Learned That Sticks

The previous nights I was busy with a Parkinson's patient who I think was dying. He's having severe desaturation down to the 60's to 50's and was just steady between 60s and 70s. His blood pressure was between 60s/50s-70/40s.

For the desaturation, the RT placed him on Hi-Flo at 50 liters 70% but still his saturation had plateaud at the high 60s. They even did the ABG but it was fine. I told the charge nurse and asked her to call the house doctor. The house doctor came and ordered to place the patient on BiPap at 16/5.

I also called the attending physician but he did not order anything because the patient is DNR. He told me to call the pulmonologist which I did not do because the house doctor was already ordering to give comfort to the patient.

For the low blood pressure the house doctor ordered a low dose dopamine drip but still the patient kept deteriorating with the saturation and BP going low. After two hours I saw the monitor at the station that the patient was in ventricular fibrillation. I went back to the room finding the patient dead, not breathing and no vital signs.

I call the primary doctor again and informed him about the death and he called back and acknowledge the call. He told me to call the family which I did. At first the POA does not answer so I left a message then after two calls I called the second person and lo and behold she answered and said that she will call all the family after I explained to her that the POA did not answer after 2 calls.

At around 3AM the pulmonologist made rounds and got mad at me because I did not call him. He also got mad at the other nurse who also had a just a patient died ahead of me. He told me that next time I need to call him for any changes in condition. I apologized to him which he did not answered.

After an hour the supervisor called me that the pulmonologist was mad and that he told her that from now old I will not be assigned in all of his patients. The supervisor made a report and forwarded it to the nursing director.

I went home so down that day fearing that I will lose my job. I prayed and prayed to God to help me out. I was off that day so I needed to unwind my worries. I went to the beach to just feel the air and vent out my emotions. I cried a lot.

I went home very scared but still I prayed because I trust the Lord for my future. When I came back the next day after my off the on-duty supervisor told me about the nursing director's decision which lifted my anxiety. I told her that I cannot sleep and was very worried.

When the pulmonologist came the following day she asked him if he can give me a second chance because he feels that I deserve a second chance because I really took care of my patients. The pulmonologist told her that he will give me a second chance and warned her to tell me to stay focus all the time.

Thank God, He answered all my prayers.