Code Blue!

Last night I was on my break talking to a friend of mine that works downstairs in maternity. Then I hear an overhead page, "Code blue South 3 Orthopedics" Oh crap, that's my ward! I ran upstairs because I knew that there were some other people on their break and they wouldn't have heard the page so there weren't very many people left on the ward. I go into the room and they've already started CPR. Seventy-two year old woman about 90 lbs soaking wet. I'm pretty sure some ribs were broken. Well, the code team got there, and based on this woman's medical history and her chances for survival, no one was very optimistic, but we did what we could. "Epi 1mg! Nothing yet... ok, everyone clear!" Its not exactly like on TV. When you shock the body it doesn't jump off the bed. It shakes a bit, that's all. We got a hold of the family and they said to stop. Always, we find this out AFTER we've got their heart pumping again. Everything stopped and the heartbeat was still there but she wasn't breathing. "Its not going to last long. The adrenaline we gave is keeping it going." Well, he was right. 10 minutes later no pulse, still no breathing. "Time of death 2235hrs." I think the strangest thing about codes is how when the person is pronounced dead everyone seems to just leave. All the energy and activity in the room seems to just disappear and we're left with this body laying naked on a bed in the middle of the room. There's garbage and dirty linens all over the floor, everything is a mess. It just seems so... cold. Everybody is out at the desk finishing the paperwork, clarifying details, calling other doctors, and restocking all the stuff that was used. Anyway, after everyone left we cleaned the body a little, toe-tagged her and bagged her. Its creepy zipping up the bag and seeing the outline of a body inside the white plastic body bag. I went with the porter down to the morgue because she needed help. With all the people working in the hospital and all the patients there, its kinda funny to think that the morgue is probably the most secure area in the hospital. No one goes in there alone.

The rest of the night was uneventful.