The Death of a Man

The Death of a Man

Being an orderly at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital was a fun job that

required a strong heart. The hospital was a great place for me to experience

the beauty of life and the unwanted death of humans. Throughout my year of

employment at the Community Hospital, I was able to enjoy my work by interacting

with many kinds of interesting patients. Without the hospital, I would have

never imagined to be carrying on conversations with most of these people.

Aiding curses required many long exhilarating hours of work each day, but I

loved experiencing the daily recovery of patients, in which I was able to be

some part.

The night of August sixth became a different story. Just as my shift was

coming to a normal close, a nurse's call light from one of the patient's rooms

had illuminated. On one of my many repetitive walks down from the station to a

patient's room, I had nothing else on my mind except for my evening plans with

friends. I was extremely happy that this would surely be the last call light I

would be answering that shift. As I entered the room, a crying relative came

yelling at me. "He is going, something happened, do something, do something

now!", demanded the distressed lady standing right at the bed side. I had seen

this man before, although I had never spoken to him. I had know idea that he

was not in a stable health.

"All right, all right," I replied in frustration, not knowing exactly what

to do first. I looked at the 84 year old overweight male patient. He appeared

very pale with his brown colored eyes half shut looking desperately at me for

some sort of help. My mind was becoming blank, as I could not believe what I

was about to experience. In training we were told this could happen from time,

to time, but I never thought with me. We were also told how to deal with the

death of a patient, although I never thought I would be a part in this type of

situation. Regardless, I could not think straight. I could not move as I

started to panic. I looked around before I noticed that I was the only help

available. I became scared. I then all at once, ran out of the room, screaming

for help to any one that would be able to hear me, "Code Blue, Code Blue, room

219 now!" Running back into the room, I stepped behind the bed and pulled the

call light on again. The high pitched sound was louder than ever. I stood

there waiting, it seemed forever not knowing exactly what I should be doing.

The young lady relative was looking at me expecting that I would bring this man

back to life. I wanted to do just that, but I did not know exactly how.

Finally, two registered nurses and then a third came veering into the

room.

"What's happening?," the first nurse exclaimed.

"The man just stopped breathing," I announced to every one. I reported to

the nurses that I was unable to find a pulse and the patient's respiration rate

could not be seen. As I backed off two nurses came racing up to the patient

trying to locate a pulse. "Nothing, nothing," a nurse concluded as two of them

began performing CPR. Within five extremely long minutes, the oldest nurse

whispered, "It's too late."

Right on the spot, the nurse had pronounced the patient dead. I could

not believe this scene was actually taking place. For the first time I saw a

human