Life in a Hospital

Actions with positive repercussions…

Every day bad things happened, yet not every day you get the opportunity to save some bodies life. Hospital work is a place where you get the chance to save peoples life, and the chance to be part of the solution or part of the problem.

A week started and Monday was already part of the past; Tuesday come and early in the morning I made my presence known by making the entire pharmacy crew leaf. I was looking forward to an uneventful day. I’m a technician with few privileges because I was trained to do everything and because I’m capable of doing a good job under pressure. Mt. Sinai in-patient pharmacy is not the place where pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have the privilege to relax. I’m saying no time to relax because the hospital is located in the middle of a well know gang aria. Traumas created by gang shutting, and intentional “GTA Vice City” (videogame where the player das to kill people by running them over with a vehicle) run over, are a frequent way a patient can arrive in the emergency room.

The new day of summer come with worm, sunny morning, just perfect to stay outside and enjoy the season. The pharmacy had a little problem; five of our technicians couldn’t make it to work. One had her child sick and she called in taking a personal day, two got into a car accident on the high way and they had to stay, give report and arrange with the insurance company to fix their cars and the other two couldn’t make it because they got food allergies. Even that we were in minus people, the day was proven to be good. No major problems were at the time in the hospital beside one trauma that come in the emergency room: the patient was an 11 year old boy, he fell from a tree and he broke his tibia bone . Hours later, me, my boss and one of the coworkers went to lunch. We didn’t get the chance to finish half of our food and a code blue was called. We rushed back to the pharmacy and everything seemed normal, no phone calls. At that point one of the pharmacists started to pull patient medical records, to show what medication was he on and the time and date when everything was dispensed.

Minutes later, another two code blues were called in other two units. Romeo, my boss, told me to go and check the status of the two patients, and to call them back if anything is wrong. I did not have the chance to open the pharmacy door and the phones started ringing. I turned around and answered them, it was good news, the patient was saved, I announced the pharmacists and with a smirk of happiness on my face I went to the other units. I took the stares to get there faster, and a code yellow was called in the emergency department. When I arrived in the first unit where code blue was called the second time, one of my favorite nurse told me that the patient is in stable condition, and that he made it. I rushed to the sixth floor where the last code blue was called and by my surprise, the morgue doctor and technician were already there. I picked up a phone and without asking anybody I announced the pharmacy that John Doe was gone.

On my way down to the pharmacy, I passed by the emergency room to check on the trauma which was called minutes earlier. When I opened the emergency room back door, I noticed everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I asked what was going on and one of the doctors told me that the patient, is a 20 year old male, with multiple gun shuts in the back and run over by an SUV, to top off everything. He didn’t finished talking and another ambulance arrived, the second patient was shut in the chest. The first patient got into a gang shutting while he was crossing the street. The second patient, who wasn’t in a gang, tried to help him after he seen the shutting and seeing him get run over by an SUV. At that point I ran to the pharmacy to pick up more IV bags and an additional crash cart tray in case if they need it. I took a pharmacist with me and we rushed back to the E.R. Passing in the front of the door, which had clear view to the outside, a black Lincoln Navigator was parked in the door leaving no space to get in the hospital, with the wind shield broken and thrown on the side, with blood on the front bumper and grill.

When