I decided that this deserved its own blog entry, because I really thought it would be different the first time I was in the room when someone died.
Today we saw a lot of really sick patients. One of them was a very sick Ugandan boy. He came in while we had been there for a couple of hours and he was etremely anemic. He was immediately given a unit of blood and started on an IV of saline. Through the history from the father we discovered that he had had fevers on and off for the last 3 months. We were at lunch when the intern did the intial admission interview and exam on the patient, but we returned when the intern presented the patient to his attending physician. The physician asked Annie and I what we thought the diagnosis was. We guessed Malaria as a cause of the symptoms. However, the physician said that the boy had been referred from rural health center that had already tried treating him for malaria. The physician said that the long duration of the fever and the anemia and neutropenia made him think of leukemia. He said that unfortunately, they aren't able to do much for leukemia patients. He prescribed another unit of blood for the boy and told the nurses to put him on a broad spectrum antibiotic.
We continued to round on the next patient who was just a few feet away. I turned to look back that the boy a few minutes later and saw he wasn't moving and two nurses were silently placing a blanket over his body and rolling the bed away. No one said anything and no one cried. No one was even holding his hand while he died or telling him they loved him. It was really strange. I turned to Annie and said, "I think that the little boy just died." She said, "Are you sure? I think they must just be moving him to another room." I turned to the intern and asked him if the boy had just died, and he said in a very matter-a-fact detached voice, "Yes, he died." It was so strange. No one seemed upset or worried about trying to comfort the family (who were no longer present). I guess the death of patients is so common that staff can't be upset and grieve over every patient.
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2 comments:
Hi Christy,
This same sort of thing happened when I was visiting baby Anne in the hospital when she was a very premature baby. Another premature baby in the bed next to Anne died. First they put a screen around the other bed, so I knew something was going on. Then they took the baby away and calmly cleaned and remade the bed. I was shocked. Everyone was so matter of fact about the baby's death, and my heart was breaking for the family of the baby. The parents were not there when it happened. All I could think about was how I would feel if it were Anne that died, and I just sat there with her the rest of the afternoon. I couldn't leave her. So anyway, I do know how you felt at that moment when the little boy died.
Love,
Mom
I wanted to comment, but now I'm not sure what to say. Last time I was present when someone died, it was the grief of the family that made me sad, not the death itself. I suppose that those who work with the dying daily come to terms with death. It's the last enemy that will be defeated, but it has not been vanquished yet.
Ryan
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