Death

It was maybe around 10.30 am yesterday, I can’t clearly remember the time. The buzzer went off three times, which meant that a patient was entering the red zone.  Some of the staff and most students ran to the zone, and so did I. 

What I saw was definitely not what I expected. The first thing I noticed was that an exchange student was doing chest compressions on a patient. The whole team was working on resuscitating the latter. It looked nothing like in the movies. It was somehow chaotic but the staff knew what was to be done. No one panicked and people were still going on with their usual conversation as if it was absolutely normal.

After a few cycles, the patient was unable to be resuscitated. No one actually called the time of death, as it is usually done in the movies. It was all over in a few minutes.

And this was the first time that I saw a person pass away in front of me…

I always expected it to be traumatic and I thought I would have trouble holding my tears, but it was not. There was a peaceful atmosphere in the room. I knew that the medical team did their best and that it was time for the patient to move on.

Later on, when I was following the ER physician on his teaching rounds, it was initially hard to focus on what he was saying as the patient’s wife was crying and screaming nearby. I almost had tears in my eyes but I reminded myself that this is what doctors experience on a daily basis. We can’t let ourselves be affected about what happens to a patient as this can endanger the lives of the remaining patients in the wards.

So yes, it was my first experience where I saw a patient move on. It made me realise once more that life is indeed short and that it can come to a stop at any time.