This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Read part 1 here: The Night I Died: The Whole Story, Part 1
The medic closest to my ear on that night I died apologized for the hospital. It had a bad reputation and, although the closest hospital is mandated in cases of near death, I could tell he didn’t feel good about taking me there. What I remember most about that emergency room is the heated blankets. With very little blood left to warm my body I was freezing cold and those blankets were nirvana.
They hooked me up to an IV and gave me lots of fluids. I later learned it takes the system awhile to register a massive bleed and, when fluids fill the veins, it gives the body a false sense of blood. So I was revived to a degree.
The doctor was busy that night and disregarded my account of major blood loss. He told me when people see any amount of blood it frightens them and they think it’s more than it really is. He diagnosed food poisoning and ordered me released.
This is where my first nurse angel came in. She refused to send me home. She stood outside my door and fought with that doctor, saying I couldn’t sit up without fainting and she was not checking me out. She won and I stayed.
At the shift change the doctor, once again, ordered me out and this is when my second nurse angel showed herself. She was helping me into the bathrobe I’d arrived in because I couldn’t do it myself and said, “Honey, this doesn’t seem right. Promise me you’ll call your doctor when you get home.”
The delayed check out saved my life because, had I left the hospital in the early morning hours I would have called a cab, not a friend, and I would have gone home to my bed and died. I was still bleeding internally and wasn’t thinking clearly.
When my friend, Rachel, arrived and found me colorless and lying on a bench in the waiting room because I couldn’t sit up, she was very concerned. And this is how the second nurse was life-saving: I told Rachel what she’d said so we went home and called my doctor. I never would have made that call without Rachel nor thought of it without that nurse.
My GP had a small family practice and her receptionist was sharp. She told me to come in immediately. In the meantime my doctor had the hospital fax the night’s tests to her. On arrival I was ushered into her office where blood was drawn. Comparing these results with the hospital’s tests showed her I was still bleeding. Unbeknownst to me she approached Rachel in the lobby and said, “Jeane is dying. There’s no time for an ambulance. Can you get her to Swedish or should I have one of my staff do it?” Rachel drove me, white knuckled, to the hospital.
I’d never been in the hospital before and I’d always thought, once there, all suffering ended. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I don’t know how she swung it with the other staff and patients, but my third nurse angel was there for me that night. She came to my room where she found me in a fetal position, got up on my bed and wrapped herself around me. She stayed with me like that all night.
Perhaps it was a little like when a part of us goes to sleep—an arm or a leg. When it comes back to life it tingles and hurts. I think my whole being was waking up that night, was coming back and, after an entire lifetime, it more than tingled. But it was life giving, too. That night, in that hospital bed, wrapped round by a compassionate nurse, the feeling came back to me and I began to live.
This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Read part 1 here: The Night I Died: The Whole Story, Part 1
My Story Continued…
- High Road Artist: My Story Begins
- My Re-Birthday
- Leap of Faith
- Into the Wilderness
- Of the Land
- The Long Goodbye
- Coming to New Mexico
- Dreams Come True
- The Night I Died: The Whole Story, Part 1
- The Night I Died: The Whole Story, Part 2
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