Lisa
Posted by realityrounds on April 9, 2009
There are some accidents that are so violent and gruesome that they capture the nation’s attention. The unfortunate victim will be at the center of a media firestorm with reporters swarming and photographers lights blazing. What happened? Who is to blame? What will become of the poor victim? Then days turn to weeks, and weeks to months, and our attention is drawn to other tragedies and absurdities of daily life.
Yet the victim remains. Clinging to life. Horribly disfigured. Sightless. Laying day in and day out in the same hospital bed, as days turn to weeks and weeks into months. Drugs will course through her veins to numb the pain and decrease brain swelling and dull the memory. Wounds start to heal.
The best and the brightest attend to her care. Teams of skillful surgeons in prestigious hospitals practice their art. She will receive the best of what science and technology has to offer. Miracles of medicine will happen in her hospital room.
And she will lay, day in and day out in the same hospital bed. Days will turn to weeks and weeks to months. She will be cared for and talked to. Day in and day out she will be called by her name, told where she is, and who is caring for her. There is someone in there, deep inside, laying in that hospital bed. She will be talked to and cared for as if she were awake. There must be someone deep inside.
Yet the patient remains quiet and empty in her bed. Swarms of reporters are replaced by swarms of surgeons and specialists, sweeping in and out of her room. She is talked to as if she were awake. Her nurse repeats her name to the patient every day. Miracles can happen in hospital rooms.
In her quiet room, days turn to weeks and weeks to months, and the quiet is broken with one miraculous word, Lisa.
RR
RN-ish said
Wow. I read that the first words Charla Nash said after the horrific chimpanzee attack, was the name of her nurse. We sometimes forget how we can impact lives. Go Lisa.
realityrounds said
I am glad you knew what I was writing about. I was really touched by this story. Nurses rarely receive any attention for all the important work we do.
Grand Rounds: Diversity | Health Blogs Observatory said
[...] compassion and just focus on technology, surgery, and medicine. In the story simply titled “Lisa“, Reality Rounds reminds us that miracles can happen in hospital [...]
Urban Sundvall said
Thank You for this powerful and wonderfully worded reminder of the tremendous and powerful impact nurses can have on patients.
As somebody who is now working in the mind care industry and therefore the holistic health industry and doing so do in no small part due to having had strokes/hemiplegic migraine. The Nurses care and consideration and yes respect that I received as a patient had a tremendous influence on my mental attitude and therefore the ultimate outcome in regard to my physical well-being. It is something that I will always be grateful for. There is one nurse in particular I am really grateful to, she knows who she is, who had the courage to not only recognize the power of the words she spoke and what it helped to spark in me, and also to also take action. She recognized that she had given me the courage to get out of my bed and start to do something, despite being paralyzed down my left side. And also the courage to hand me the tools to be able to do so. Without her I wouldn’t be where I am today and that is in a position to use my words to encourage, strengthen and help others to achieve their goals.
realityrounds said
Thank you for this wonderful comment. It is also very powerful. I do believe that the “spirit” is also very important in recovery. Your comment surely proves this point.