QUITE A SHOCK
Mary G. Barry, MD
C
hristmas Eve 1978: As usual, I was
working double shifts, from 3 p.m.
till 7 a.m., as a nurse in the CCU at
General Hospital, earning my keep and tuition to continue post-bac pre-med classes
at U of L. We had six beds, five crammed
against the wall and one in the corner, a
bathroom, and cubbyholes for nurses at one
end and for docs at the other, which they
shared with the EKG machine and the Fluoro C-arm.
The off-going nurse Chris said, “For a holiday, it’s been quiet,”
and Annie and I could have kicked her (not the Christmas spirit
exactly) for that sentiment should never be uttered in a hospital.
Therefore, in short order, we took a lady with pulmonary edema
who peed gallons in response to oxygen and Lasix, and we could
watch her relax; an old man who was just cold and tired and got
all his calories from vodka so in consequence had rapid atrial fib;
and a crazy street person who had real angina but not the sense to
shut up and rest. Dr Ummat told me to give her Valium and nitro
till she got better, and that was very satisfactory.
Near midnight the Baptist choir came around and sang out in
the big hallway, as they did every Sunday. I gave Annie coffee and
she gave me Life cereal, six boxes, as it was my staff of life at the
time.
Then the intern called, told me to get the pulm edema lady out
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
of there, quick, keep all the same. So we unloaded rapidly on the
poor overworked ward nurse and hurried back with our bed, barely getting sheets on it before our star patient arrived. He was a
treecutter who had gotten electrocuted then flown up here from
Etown. He had been shocked a bunch already, and was sweaty
from the chest up, a very bad sign. He had a little wife who was of
course pregnant, and a crying mother, and a stoic dad with his arm
around both of them.
We put him on 100 percent on the vent, and ran in Nitro and
Lidocaine and Dopamine and morphine, and had to shock him
some more; but by the grace of God he settled down. We took
deep breaths. The intern went off to see people, and Annie and I
drew blood and did EKGs and gave baths and guarded our tree
man. We let his family in again, and I asked his dad why was he
cutting trees in the dark of night.
“He was building a new deer stand,” he said, “but it wasn’t on
our land.”
“Ah,” I said. “Undercover then.”
He shook his head.
“Ft. Knox deer taste better, “ he said, and he smiled, and I was
glad he could smile.
Note: Dr. Barry practices Internal Medicine with Norton Community Associates-Barret. She is a clinical associate professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Department of Medicine.