“You better think about that baby! Stop throwing your life away!” These words mixed with degrees of urgency and complacency that lined the wide hall of the ED. Deep, wet coughing propelled by moans of agony collided with muted sobbing and laughter from the nurses’ station. It was Sunday afternoon, slowly turning to evening in this city emergency department. It was not a place we wanted to be.
The funnel of pain and human desperation empties here, or at least this is the beginning of some kind of conclusion. It might begin the healing and chart a new and healthier course. It could be a wake-up call to finally gather the professional help needed to correct an unmanageable life. Or it might be the end. Simply a place where life runs out.
What it means to the patients and family is as varied as life itself. To those working here-the students and hardened vets-it is a day to apply ample skills and offer help to the nearly helpless. And they are very special, these overworked practitioners of free-fall healing and the science of triage. They watch people die on a regular basis, along side those who just can’t deal with life today, often for very trivial reasons. They keep their opinions to themselves until they are just out of ear-shot; sometimes barely out of earshot.
We were there because we thought we had lost our Omi. Irma is Monika’s mom and my mother-in-law and friend. I knew Omi before I knew and fell in love with her daughter. She was sitting at the breakfast table and suddenly passed out. It took us some minutes to get any reaction from her and then it was empty eyes and labored breath. The EMT came very quickly and Omi slowly returned to us. But the doctor who rode on the call insisted we take her in for more tests. And we were, once again, handed over to those who work so hard to hold off the inevitable.
Sensory overload is in the job description, and somehow, one by one, the tests and treatments gave way to good news, in this case, that nothing was seriously wrong. I commend those who are happy in this rodeo of human suffering and wish them well. But I hope you don’t mind if I tell you, I’d rather not spend another day with you folks.
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