I was working nights, the ward was over capacity, so I had 6 patients. Two were fresh post-ops and one patient getting blood, with one empty bed. I get word that I am getting a patient from the step down unit.  I take report over the phone and the patient comes up. Immediately I have concerns, they look scared, their resp rate is high and their lungs sound bad. I went out to ask the charge nurse to call the RT, I go back in and they looks even worse; their sats are dropping. I go back out to tell the charge nurse to call the MET (medical emergency team), when I go back in the room, they are in full blown respiratory arrest, face is blue, foam coming out of their nostrils.  I yell for help, and two PACU nurses come running in, they had just dropped off a different post-op. They start bagging her and call the code. It seemed like I blinked and all of a sudden there were a million people in there with me.  I felt frozen; everyone seemed to know what to do except me. Standing beside me was a very senior nurse who pushed the clipboard in my hand and helped me start recording. I started answering questions the best I could, considering how little I knew about her. Eventually they got her intubated and into the ICU.  I will never forget how scared I felt, or how the code team made me feel better, relaxed even.  I remember the roommate saying that she was saying a prayer for them.  I remember feeling like every drug, every breath, and every action was a prayer.
That was my first code. 



Leave a Reply.