My own nursing anecdotes:
Surprised by a miracle
I had been working in the trauma unit at a local hospital for about a year. You get used to families thinking that a "coma" patient is moving their hand or doing something that they were asked to do. "Following commands" is what we call it. Often it's "wishful thinking" on the families part. Nurses can easily become callous to it.
On this particular night during visiting hours, my patient's wife came in. I had taken care of him for several nights. I was very familiar with his care and what he was able to do. Actually, he didn't do anything. He barely moved at all, even when something would obviously hurt him, such as suctioning.
His wife was very short, about 5 foot tall. She had to stand on a stool to lean over him, so that she could see his face and talk to him. She climbed up on the stool. I spoke to her for a few minutes, then stepped out to tend to my other patient. A few minutes later, she came running out of the room. In an excited voice, she said "Donna, he's moving his hand!"
I immediately thought that it was probably her imagination, and that he had not actually done it on purpose. He had been there about a month at the time and had never made any movements on purpose. I asked her what had happened and she said, "I asked him to squeeze my hand and he did!"
This lead me to another train of questioning. "But, did he let go when you asked him to"? She said yes, that he had done exactly what she asked.
I went into the room with her, not really believing that I would see anything different than I had always seen. But I decided that it would be better to pacify her than to make her think I didn't believe her or that she was somehow mistaken.
She asked him to squeeze her hand, which he did.
I said, "Well, ask him to let go." He continued to squeeze for a moment, so that when he finally did let go, I really still didn't believe that he had done it on purpose.
So, I said, "Ask him to hold up one finger." He did as asked.
Well, hmm, this was starting to get my attention. I looked at him, his face still somewhat swollen and his eyes still closed. "Stick out your tongue!" I said. He did it. I almost fell in the floor.
I went running out to the nurses station and got all of the nurses in the unit. "Look what he can do!" I was saying to them. I was as excited as his wife had been and my excitement compounded hers. She knew she had been right and was jumping up and down. Many nurses came to the door and one stood there and said "Well, I'll be!"
The rest of the night, we would all go into his room and ask him to do stuff. None of us could get over the fact that he was really doing it. It was still minor things, like sticking his tongue out, raising his eyebrows, holding up one finger. But to us, it was a miracle. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone "wake up."
As the morning came and the doctors came in, I couldn't wait till they got to my patient's room. I went to them and told them, "You won't believe what this man can do!"
I took the doctors into his room and tried to show them. In our excitement, we had exhausted him that night by keeping him awake and having him show us what he could do. Now he wouldn't do a thing! He was sound asleep.
The doctor looked at me and said "Now, Donna, you know those movements are probably just spontaneous." I was furious! He all but called me a liar!
Actually, he wasn't thinking anymore or any less than I had of my patient's wife when she tried to tell me.
He said, "Now don't tell the family that because we don't want to give them false hope."
I said, "I won't have to, they told me."
It was time for the patient to be moved to a step-down unit since he no longer required intensive care. About a week later, I overheard one of the doctors telling someone about this patient. Apparently, the doctor had just left the step-down unit and had seen the patient gingerly walking down the hall with a belt around his waist and a physical therapist walking beside to help him. Everyone in the hospital was talking about it.
God gives us miracles all the time. Generally, we tend to not believe what we are seeing as a miracle. That's just easier.
I learned a good lesson. My patient's families know a lot more about their family member than I do and if I didn't listen to them before, I sure do now!
:: a guest anecdote by Donna Doughtery, R.N.
:: visit Donna's Ask a Nurse page.
