Lewanika General Hospital

January 31st: Today was a very difficult day for me at the hospital. I was very overjoyed to discover that the woman that I was told would be giving birth to a stillborn had a live healthy premature baby. The smile on her face when she was able to see and touch her baby was incredible. The woman that was not doing very well yesterday when I left her was also doing much better after receiving some blood and fluid. I spotted a nurse trying to get an IV on a patient that seemed to be having trouble so I went to help her. We must have tried atleast 10 times and finally we got an IV. I then noticed that the woman was not looking very well, though she was still breathing. I tried to take a blood pressure and when I noticed that she did not have one and I could not auscultate any heart sounds, only observe the carotid pulse faintly, I realized this patient was in very big trouble. I asked for an ambu-bag to help the patient breathe but the unit said they did not have one. So I told my partner to stay with the patient while I ran to get one from another ward. I told the nurse that her patient was crashing and she left to go to the patient. The ward that I looked on had a hard time finding the ambu-bag so by the time that I got back I knew that the patient was not going to make it, she had been too long without help. My partner and I initiated CPR and worked on the patient for about 15 minutes. Boy, is CPR tiring. We suggested calling the doctor and giving the patient epinephrine but the epinephrine was unaffective. By the time the doctor arrived, he pronounced the patient and it was all over. We stood by the family and translated what happened and it was the hardest thing that I have ever experienced. Because I was leading the 'code' and had failed it was hard to accept that. I realize, however, that the patient was so sick with so many different illnesses that even if we had revived her, she probably would not have made it and died later. I know that I did my best with what I had and I would do it again to try to save the patient even if I knew the outcome.

Later that day, I looked after a patient that had been through a large Road Traffic Accident with many many burns, a heart failure patient and many more. I went to the baby ward to drop off a mother and while there I decided to look at one of the babies with my friend. I noticed that it was seizing right away and we called everyone that we could and realized that the baby had been dosed with way to much dextrose than it could handle. Babies' blood sugar was 31 (supposed to be 3-6 roughly). The pediatrician told us that there was nothing we could do but wait for the baby's blood sugar to drop and hope that the seizures have not caused too much brain damage. It was so frustrating to experience this, especially after my morning.

Today was the hardest day I have ever had in nursing. I am very proud of myself for not freezing up and I know that I helped those people as much as I could. I know that I will never forget today. I thought that the female ward would be boring....but was I ever wrong. I hope everyone is well at home.