saw it on tv once

i was working in a hospital sitting at the nurses station breaking young lady nurses hearts it was a slow night and nothing had happened since we came on shift myself and a buddy were convincing the nurses that if they go dance under the red trauma light it would light up and give us some excitement so we were sitting there watching as the pretty nurses twirled and moved and swayed under the unwavering light and we couldn't help but laugh they didn't seem to mind and they were getting a lot of attention we only had two patients in the er that night so we put on the radio and started dancing under the red light with them not much happens sometimes at two in the morning sarah grabbed me and we were doing the boogy woogy to some country song just plain old rocking out when the red light started it's flashing and the loud system started it's monotonous whine "trauma alert trauma alert level one trauma inbound eta four minutes" so we went into the bay and the nurses prepped the bed the charge nurse came around and said it was a stab wound to the upper thoracic region which is the chest

so now the nurses are preparing blood products and chest kits and the many other things that go about prepping for a severe trauma to be received the attending er physician wasn't there so i was allowed to run the trauma the trauma surgeon came down and was there to lend a hand as he does with all surgical trauma cases the paramedics came around the corner with his had holding a gauze pad over the man's upper left chest "give me the bullet" i shouted and the emt immediately responded "twenty eight year old male with puncture wound to upper left thoracic region with severe hemorrhaging unable to control in the field no other injuries patient is a and o times 0 with labored breathing one liter of isotonic fluids administered in the field" and by that time the patient was next to the bed and ready to be moved "on my count one two three" and we all lifted the patient and put him on the hospital bed as the junior emt wheeled their stretcher out and came back to watch

and we started with the recorder writing everything i said "patient is unresponsive pupils equal round and reactive to light no step off or deviations on the neck or signs of facial trauma" and i moved my way down the body checking everything i moved the bandage and immediatly put it back "puncture wound to left upper thoracic region four centimeters lateral to the midline diminished breath sounds left side no rigidity in abdomen pelvic stable no crepitis in lower or upper extremities grab c-spine and roll on one two three" and i checked down his back "no step off deviations no wounds no rectal bleeding possitive sphincter tone roll down on one two three" and then we get to fixing "forteen guage in right ac" said sarah "start whole blood o neg" i said "and get another large bore in the left arm and tko it" i added then me and the surgeon moved to the left of the chest and removed the guaze and used more gauze to clean the wound and try to visualize the damage but we couldn't "chest tray" i shouted and the nurse immediatly brought me one "have you ever done a thoracotomy before sargeant" asked the surgeon "no" i said "but i saw it on tv once" i threw in and he stared at me shocked "do you want me to do it" he asked and i said "i'm screwing this monkey sir you just hold the tail" and he stared at me again not knowing what that was supposed to mean as the nurse gowned and gloved me so i added "make sure i don't mess it up sir" and then the nurse sprayed betadine all over the chest just like in the movie and i thought oh man . . . what am i doing

but you can't let them know that even if it's true you have to appear cofident no matter what so i grabbed the scalpel and found the fourth rib and cut right down it then i grabbed the scissors and cut the muscle cartilage and fascia holding the ribs together inserted the spreader and cranked down and wouldn't you know there was the mans heart giving everything it could to beat but failing drastically . . . and then it stopped the heart sac was filling with blood from a puntcure wound by a what i guessed was a knife we inserted a needle into the heart and drained the blood surrounding it that was keeping it from doing it's one job . . . nothing i reached into his chest and started to massage the heart doing its job for it we couldn't defibrillate because it had a current running through it there was just too much damage for it to do its own job the surgeon standing next to me patted me on the shoulder and said "you did a great job it's just too much damage to the heart call it" and i felt it hit me hard and my shoulders slouched i pulled my hand out and declared "time of death zero three forteen"

it was my first patient to die on me