Highway To Heaven

Livin' easy
Lovin' free
Season ticket on a one way ride
Askin' nothin'
Leave me be
Takin' everythin' in my stride
Don't need reason
Don't need rhyme
Ain't nothin' that I'd rather do
Goin' down
Party time
My friends are gonna be there too
I'm on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I'm on the highway to hell

AC/DC - Highway To Hell, 27th June 1979, Atlantic,
Written by Bon Scott, Angus Young, Malcolm Young,
Produced by Mutt Lange,
Performed by AC/DC

18th November (Tuesday) - You're probably thinking why there's heaven in the title while there's the AC/DC ever popular Highway to Hell lyrics. Well, the heaven part is a sort of metaphor. You see, early on I followed a few profs around, and one of them happened to be the good prof So-and-So. While talking to the patient, he mentioned that he'll be leaving by December. Ah, so that explains why he is trying to recruit some people to follow him. Again, I say he's being very kind to offer me a job, but sadly I have to decline. The senior staff nurse overheard our conversation and I quickly denied, when the prof was questioned, he was telling that we were discussing about going to heaven (Yes, yes, exactly), but saying those words triggered the next string of events.

I got the first few rooms, sigh, just my luck. Even though I got those few rooms, I rarely attended my patients due to busy attending others. Especially some of the Chinese old ladies whom rarely speak a word of English or Malay. Nothing much about those parts, at 11, I was supposed to do my observation but the lady is calling me to change her diapers, together with my colleague. Not a problem, except after we changed, she suddenly complained of difficulty in breathing. We hurriedly put oxygen for her together with the oxygen saturation machine that I brought. Not good. Her saturation rates from 83% to 85%. Oh my Lord, I dashed to the prof who is still in front and quickly informed him, then he gave me the order to increase the oxygen dosage with face mask. For 30 minutes I sat in her room, unable to move because her oxygen is really poor, even after I put up to 7- 8 litre. When the senior came in, I told her about my situation and she got me to get High Flow mask for 10 litre and above oxygen. Sad to say, even after I ran like a mad person with High Flow masks in hand and put up to 10 litre oxygen, her oxygen still isn't improving til the senior increased up to 15 litre, the maximum level. And even then, her oxygen only maintained at 95%. Ohhh. I got a better saturation machine and plug it in and kept it on the patient for continuous saturation monitoring. And wrote my ridiculously long report about the saturation monitoring. Thank heavens for that. You'll see why later. Continuing on...

Not much to say at this point, except when I was updating my IO charts and doing appointments for some of my patients, I picked up a call which kept asking for me. I was halfway doing a patient's appointment and I asked why and they said, "We need a Chinese translator, pronto." After hurriedly setting the appointment, I informed my TL I'll be going over to the other side and off I went, thank God the patient is able to speak Chinese so I'm safe. After a long explanation to the patient herself and the son's girlfriend, regarding about fasting and medicine timings, the prof managed to get a consent and together with mine, we got it legally covered. So after handing over to the TL over there, I went back to my ward to finish my IO charts and then disaster with a capital D ensues.
At 1410 HR, it's actually passed my shift but we had to wait for the reports to be finished passing over before we could leave. Suddenly the CI and some seniors called me because my patient suddenly ended up in trouble. When I reached the room, she looks the same, difficulty in breathing and sweaty. But her saturation haven't drop. But for some strange reason, she kept saying it's difficult. Feeling cold, I stayed by her side while we try getting her vitals for the prof. Pulse is still okay, blood sugar is okay, but for some reason, blood pressure can't be read and all of a sudden her saturation can't be read. Oh God, please don't let this be real. I shouted her name while tapping her to get response, with no response, I tried pulling her eyelid a little and her eyeballs are rolling upwards. No! I slammed my fingers to her wrist, no pulse. To be sure, I slammed my fingers to her jugular (neck) vein and---
The Sister demanded to get the Emergency Cart ready while the attendant and I get the various equipments ready. Suction, clear the room, the CI got the son and husband to go out and we got the room ready. Once the cart arrived, the Sister took action by performing CPR while some of my colleagues got the oxygen and suction ready. One person got the AMBU bag and is pumping air into her. The anaesthesist came thanks to the senior calling him and soon we were rushing up and down, with senior staffs yelling their orders, and for me and the other girls, CPR. Even though it's only 3 months, I had to perform it cause she's my patient. Fighting back tears and praying hard, I did what I was taught. Hard and fast, and count outloud to keep the cycle going. I overheard some of the staff murmuring "3 months only and she's doing CPR? Crazy." but it's in a good way. I kept my pumping fast and hard as I could and change after every 5 cycles. Not easy, my arms were aching and I was sweating hard while fighting back tears and willing for the madam to stay with me. No luck. I saw the ECG machine and she isn't flatlined yet, please tell me there's a little hope.
1500 HR and the anaest shake his head and called out, "10 more minutes, if still no response, then we stop." While waiting for my turn for the change, I saw her husband and son crying outside. Please, please, because she's my patient, I had to do the report. Eager to hide my tears, I dashed to the front, grabbed her folder, and with the CI guidance, I wrote the report with shaky hands. I couldn't talk much due to my voice being cracked so I just held out my report for the IC to check. After correcting a few lines, I wrote the full document in black and white and then passed it to the anaest, who had came out and shook his head. No, no, no, NO! How can this be?! Unable to hide back my tears, I hung my head, letting silent tears spill. The anaest patted me gently on the back as he took my report to complete his side. The madam may not be the best patient in the ward but no one ever wish for their patient to go like that. She promised me that she will get up to walk so that she could go back home. WHY?!!!