The Hand of God - Part 5 - The Crash

It was shift change time Wednesday evening.  The charge nurse Pam was sitting at the nurses' station with our day shift nurse Brittany going over all the important details from the day.  I was nervous about the new nurse we had never had before.  I worried she would be more callous and not as compassionate.  I couldn't have been more surprised as the next 45 minutes unfolded.

Ali's heartrate had been running very high all day somewhere in the 180-200's although I no longer remember specifically.  Her blood pressure was high too.  Near 8 pm I noticed Ali's heart rate began literally ticking lower- 1 point at a time. 190...189...188...187...186.  I went out to the nurses' station even though we usually tried not to interrupt at shift change.  Something didn't seem right.  Could they come in and assess her?  Was it possible that there was nothing wrong and maybe she was just starting to improve?  Her heart rate continued to tick down.  Something was wrong with her labs.  Electrolyte imbalance and her sugars were extremely low too I believe.  They ordered meds STAT.  It wasn't long at all before they were on the phone asking for support.  I think the respiratory therapist was actually already there, but it is hard to remember all the little details now.  The crash cart was wheeled in from right outside the door.  Her heart rate had dropped all the way down to 50 now.  Pam was in charge, and she was calling out meds faster than I could keep up.  They disconnected her from the ventilator and were now bagging her.  Pam apologized but asked me to move from her bed side to the foot, so that she could start compressions.   Ali had weak pulses in her extremities still.  Al and I stood at the foot of her bed watching helplessly, praying silently.  The room was full of people.  We watched every detail as they worked so very hard to save her.  The pulmonologist came in about a half hour after she started crashing.  He took over for Pam.  He searched for pulses in her extremities.  He couldn't find them.  They had worked for close to 45 minutes.  Her heart was "beating" again, but it was not pumping blood.  There was nothing else they could do.  I asked if I could hold her.  They continued bagging her until they got me situated in chair.  Then they stopped and placed her in my arms with Al right beside me.  Everyone else was suddenly gone from the room.  It was just Al, me, and Ali along with the charge nurse and the pulmonologist.  They left the monitors on until her heart stopped.  She died at 8:40pm May 18, 2011 in her mother's arms.

To be continued...

Part Six