Did I Kill Her!
Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
I have been at our hospice for a few hours by this time. It was a beautiful mid-morning Saturday. I decided to take a small emotional break at the downstairs nurses station. Sitting with me was a doctor and a few nurses.
We had all been sitting around and telling stories to each other. Then one of the nurses told this story about a lady attending a patient, who was a loved one. The patient was in her last moments of the progression of her disease. The family member was sitting with the patient.
The patient was in pain and uncomfortable, and ask for more morphine. The patient had a tube connected to her arm to administer morphine. In some situations like this one the patient themselves are allowed to administer as much morphine as they need.
But the patient had dropped the hand pump to administer to morphine. It's a small pump that you hold with your hand and you can push the button with your thumb to administer more morphine. The patient asked her family member to pick it up and give it back to her.
The family member did just that and gave the hand pump back to the patient. The patient quickly pump it a few times to administer morphine to reduce her suffering. Cancer, and it's different stages, is very very painful and can cause much suffering.
Not long after administering a few pumps on the morphine pump, the patient passed away. The family member who gave the pump back to the patient was terrified! She had thought the morphine kill the patient!
The nurse had to try to explain to her that it was not the morphine that killed the patient but her cancer! All the morphine was doing was relieving the suffering! But the love one thought that the morphine kill the patient and she had given her the morphine pump!
The nurse spent quite a bit of time counseling with the loved one and making sure she understood that the morphine did not kill the patient that the cancer had killed her! Now that the patient had passed away it was time to make sure that the loved one was not feeling guilty about the death!
Do you know of somebody who misunderstood the application of medication? Can you tell me about it in the comment section?
If you enjoyed the story you can click on the link to follow this blog.
William James Roop
I have been at our hospice for a few hours by this time. It was a beautiful mid-morning Saturday. I decided to take a small emotional break at the downstairs nurses station. Sitting with me was a doctor and a few nurses.
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| Google commons |
We had all been sitting around and telling stories to each other. Then one of the nurses told this story about a lady attending a patient, who was a loved one. The patient was in her last moments of the progression of her disease. The family member was sitting with the patient.
The patient was in pain and uncomfortable, and ask for more morphine. The patient had a tube connected to her arm to administer morphine. In some situations like this one the patient themselves are allowed to administer as much morphine as they need.
But the patient had dropped the hand pump to administer to morphine. It's a small pump that you hold with your hand and you can push the button with your thumb to administer more morphine. The patient asked her family member to pick it up and give it back to her.
The family member did just that and gave the hand pump back to the patient. The patient quickly pump it a few times to administer morphine to reduce her suffering. Cancer, and it's different stages, is very very painful and can cause much suffering.
Not long after administering a few pumps on the morphine pump, the patient passed away. The family member who gave the pump back to the patient was terrified! She had thought the morphine kill the patient!
| Google commons |
The nurse had to try to explain to her that it was not the morphine that killed the patient but her cancer! All the morphine was doing was relieving the suffering! But the love one thought that the morphine kill the patient and she had given her the morphine pump!
The nurse spent quite a bit of time counseling with the loved one and making sure she understood that the morphine did not kill the patient that the cancer had killed her! Now that the patient had passed away it was time to make sure that the loved one was not feeling guilty about the death!
Do you know of somebody who misunderstood the application of medication? Can you tell me about it in the comment section?
If you enjoyed the story you can click on the link to follow this blog.
William James Roop
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