Attention Attention Code Blue

http://au.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b125402_greys_anatomy_inspires_reality_show.html

Yes. Today on prac I encountered by first ever code blue. And yes. It was on my patient. And yes. I saw it all unfold before my eyes. I was once told by a seasoned nurse about the situation I would lose my first patient in, and they were right. I didn't believe them at the time, but they were right. I shan't go into that because most people probably wouldn't want to hear. But listen to those seasoned nurses, they speak the truth.

Anyway, just like in Grey's Anatomy, I pressed the big red button and set off the emergency bells in my ward (my mentor was with me the whole time, just so you know..otherwise I'd a be freaking out far before this stage. I kicked and shoved everything out of the way so the nurses with the resuscitation trolley could come barging in. Compressions were started and so the story unfolded. I mainly stayed in the corner where I was out of the way but helped where I could by priming IV lines, manually pumping the jellofusion (fluids to increase blood pressure) and doing the all important blood sugar level (Got to give me something?). By this time the Medical Emergency Team were in the room and jumping around in full force. There was nothing short of 20 people all jammed into this very small room. I was sweating up a storm as I furiously pumped jellofusion into this patient with voracious force.

Once patient was stabilised, it was off to ICU for us. In reality, the bed was pushed down the corridor in a slightly hastened walk with myself holding the notes and my mentor holding the portable suction but in my mind we were sprinting down the corridor shoving people into door frames and screaming as we hurtled faster towards the lifts.

Code Blues are funny things. Every shift I here about 3 or 4 code blues from other wards, or in an elevator in one instance, but you don't think anything much of them until its your patients. It was a pretty harrowing experience but was made all the much better because the patient survived and the whole team of doctors and nurses in that room were incredible.

To narrow it down, I learnt: Doctors argue a lot in codes, nurses are lovely, patients can be talking right up until the end, Grey's Anatomy prepared me somewhat, and 20 people jammed into a room at once make more than a sweaty haze - they save lives. Booyah! (The booyah is uncharacteristic. Please don't judge)