Pain In The Neck

Falling down a flight of stairs is scary stuff for anyone, but imagine that you are over 80 years old and mildly confused. You can no longer function as you used to due to your debilitating bowl cancer and you sometimes cannot find the enthusiasm to get up in the morning. It is times like this when I get the wake up call that my job really is bitter sweet.

(Firstly I would like to point out that I am currently on clinical placement on an Orthopaedic ward and it has only been 4 days since I started!)

I have been put in charge of a bay of 4 female patients. I commandeer everything that goes on in the bay and am the first point of call if anyone needs any help. So when I discharged a patient the night before it was inevitable that the following day I would be admitting one. By 11am the bed was occupied and there I was going through the motions of admission.

This lady had fallen down the stairs and had a ?C-spine fracture along with a HUGE haematoma (bruise/swelling) on her left temple. She must have fallen down in the most spectacular fashion as she had ended up against the wall with her legs up the stairs!

The Ambulance crew had placed her on a spinal board and applied head blocks and a collar to keep her head immobilised. She had come on to the ward with the head blocks still in situ which posed a bit of a problem as they kept sliding about the bed and not really doing the job they were designed for. She was unable to move all day and had been laying on her back since 06.00am, so as you can imagine my worries lied more with pressure sores and such rather than what she was going to have for lunch!

The Dr's are not about in large numbers at w/e and that causes a problem in itself. We had one who came to assess her, he did his bit and then said he would be back in the afternoon to re-assess. However, he did not return. This poor lady had been left all day on her back, NBM and still very confused. She had managed to wriggle out of her head blocks several times and I was getting frustrated as there was no other alternative.

At the end of my shift I left the nurses and went to see this lady. She was upset that she was alone and I had to explain I wouldn't be back until a few days later. I walked away from her feeling a little heartbroken and sad at the state she was in.

Yes I did shed a tear.