Hanging in There

Club Juice

As per usual, Dr Gullow made it a point to buy us coffee. Though he doesn’t drink coffee. He always drinks this cool looking berry smoothie.

“*****, what would you like?” asked Dr Gullow. I blurted out "club juice" simply because I managed to read the first line of its description. It seemed decent enough.

As the juice lady started to mix my drink, I observed the ingredients she used. Banana, Orange, and strawberries. And then she poured in some ‘brown juice’ into the concoction. My heart skipped a beat. I took the juice anyway.

Did I even dare take a sip?

The team was chatting animatedly about communism. I wasn’t paying attention. I was studying the plastic cup that held my Club Juice, wondering what secret ingredient had been put in. I took a deep breath and sipped anyway.

I found out what the brown stuff was. GINGER!

It burned my throat. I was close to puking. And there was three quarters of the cup left. I peered over Dr Janus’ shoulder to the neon sign. I scanned again for “Club Juice”. I was right. GINGER.

Who the heck puts ginger mixed with juice.

Moral: Read the sign. Don’t rush in.

The ECG

“Thanks *****, we’ll go to cardiology to confirm the diagnosis,” said Tom. I was panting. My heart was racing. Tom had no idea on what had just transpired.

Should I tell him?

30 minutes ago....

“*****, do me a favour and do an ECG on Mrs AC...”

I had done an ECG only one other time. This would be my first procedure unsupervised.

As I went to the ward down the door to grab the ECG machine, I noticed that Tom had asked Mrs AC’s children to leave the ward so that I could perform the test in privacy.

I drew the curtains to shield her from the prying eyes of other patients. She was asleep.

“Mrs C?, I’ll be doing a short procedure on you just to test your heart. I need you to be awake for this procedure, and I promise that it won't hurt a bit”

“Mmmhh,” she responded through her oxygen mask.

I proceeded to stick on the pads required at the correct position on her body. I had to expose her chest to get underneath her left armpit. She didn’t complain.

Then I realized that I had round out of pads. No biggie.

“I’ll be back in two minutes Mrs C, I just need to get some more pads,” I assured her.

I darted out of the ward, asking the nurses whether they had any to spare. I went from corridor to corridor till I reached St Charles’ ward. There were plenty in the store.

Mission accomplished. Time to get back to my patient. As I walked out of the store room, I realized that I had lost my bearings.

I was freakin' lost. Shoot.

I totally forgot to take note of the turns I made or any other significant landmarks that would’ve led me back to Mrs AC.

I calmed myself down and played it by ear. Through some miracle I made it back without making a wrong turn. I had only been gone for 10 minutes max.

As I entered the ward, I heard groaning. It came from Mrs AC. I dashed through into her cubicle.

Her oxygen mask had fallen off. And she was bleeding through her nose. It was a horrible sight.

I called out for a nurse while readjusting her oxygen mask, not really sure if I was doing the right thing. The poor thing was gasping for air.

She began to settle down as she got more oxygen. The nurse came in and gave a hand in holding the mask to her face.

If I had taken a wrong turn in getting back, she might’ve died. The reality of what I had just did sunk in. I was somewhat lucky that things didn’t spiral out of control. I could’ve never predicted that her mask would fall off. It was just one of those things.

PS: I did manage to perform the ECG despite the drama