Today I got to shadow in the Trauma ER. I can not express how amazing it was. From the moment I stepped into the trauma bay, I knew I was going to have fun. Five minutes after I got there we had a lady come in with a breached birth. It was hectic, it was crazy, it was exciting. I got to watch as everyone rushed to get the baby out of the woman. She was a drug addict so there were complications with her pregnancy and the baby wasn't breathing when it came out. The team got the baby back and rushed it up to the NICU. I got to watch them cut the placenta and even perform an episiotomy. Shortly after that a lady came in with a possible stroke and bruises all over her body. When we got a CT, we found that she had a brain bleed. Her body was covered in bruises from head to toe in a way that was consistent with abuse. The family had said she fell the day before, but the team called in social work just in case. When we came back from getting her CT, a man had gone into cardiac arrest. I watched them perform CPR as well as use the AED. I was in the room when they called the time of death, but I was unphased. I expected to be a little more affected by seeing someone like that, but I was okay. And that's how I knew that this was the type of job I could handle.
After a few more people came in, we took our lunch brake. It got interrupted by an emergency call from inside the hospital. We got up and ran to the cancer institute in the hospital because a patient's heart had stopped while getting an iron transfusion. Everything was chaotic in this tiny little room, but after about a half hour of CPR, they finally felt a pulse. The adrenaline from running down the hallways and watching everyone trying to revive her was amazing. It was like serotonin.
I got to see so many things today that were extremely fun. And I realized how badly I wanted to be hands on. I wanted to be part of that trauma team. I wanted the chaos. It was great. And I'm hoping to have more opportunities like that in the future because I'm truly starting to think that this is something I might want to do. I can truly see myself in that trauma bay every day for the rest of my life. I can see myself being truly truly satisfied in this position. I had so much fun it is beyond my capacity to describe in words. This is the healthcare I want to provide.
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