She Is Raging
Refugee
As some of you know, I'm an RN in a newborn ICU. Last night on my shift I took care of a baby that was incredibly sick... to the point where I was nauseous the whole time, thinking that I was contributing to what was probably close to torture for this baby.
For starters, he's 15weeks premature. He has horrible lungs, a bad heart, and his brain is so badly damaged that if by some miracle he survives he'll most likely be a vegetable. You cant even touch him without his heartrate dropping into the 30's ....it's extremely grim, but by some force of nature (and massive mechanical support) he's hanging in there. The main reason is... his mother is a very religious person, who has total faith that the baby will be fine. She's keeps saying that things are now in God's hands... when in actuality, if we were to remove his support, he wouldnt live longer than 5 minutes. Now I've always been an advocate for pro-life, and doing what's possible to save our patients... but I'm having major, major issues in this instance... when do you drawn the line? When or how can you explain to someone that something is impossible to fix no matter how strongly you believe in something? Believe me... I wish there was a way that we could. This baby plain and simple was just born way too soon -
This is more of a rant than anything else - but if you have any thoughts or opinions, please share...
For starters, he's 15weeks premature. He has horrible lungs, a bad heart, and his brain is so badly damaged that if by some miracle he survives he'll most likely be a vegetable. You cant even touch him without his heartrate dropping into the 30's ....it's extremely grim, but by some force of nature (and massive mechanical support) he's hanging in there. The main reason is... his mother is a very religious person, who has total faith that the baby will be fine. She's keeps saying that things are now in God's hands... when in actuality, if we were to remove his support, he wouldnt live longer than 5 minutes. Now I've always been an advocate for pro-life, and doing what's possible to save our patients... but I'm having major, major issues in this instance... when do you drawn the line? When or how can you explain to someone that something is impossible to fix no matter how strongly you believe in something? Believe me... I wish there was a way that we could. This baby plain and simple was just born way too soon -
This is more of a rant than anything else - but if you have any thoughts or opinions, please share...