I admitted Roxanne to the hospital a few weeks back. I wasn't on ER call but she specifically requested for me. She was a nurse and was just working a week prior to getting sick. She had a hacking cough which she was self-medicating with Levaquin but it wasn't getting any better. When I saw her, she was septic due to pneumonia but I wasn't worried because she was not in overt respiratory distress and had no other past medical history.
I asked her if she wanted a pulmonologist on board. She said, "No. I trust that what you're doing will make me better."
I never saw Roxanne again after that initial encounter. A colleague of mine took over for the weekend and I prematurely gave birth. It came as a shock to learn that she went into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), was intubated, spent a couple of weeks in the ICU, and eventually died.
How could that happen? She was healthy, young, and full of vitality. She was an excellent nurse and had so much to offer others. Why her? Why not that sleazebag who has over a hundred admissions to the hospital but continues to drink alcohol like water and is draining the country's resources at the expense of hard-working taxpayers? I find this deeply troubling.
On a brighter note, my son Axel is home.
My appreciation of every hug is now even more intense ... especially since there are many --- like Roxanne's daughters, and those who lost their relatives in Japan --- who will never see their loved ones come home again.
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dr_ofw's journal
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