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The following is a story that happened years ago, when I was working in the ED. Believe it or not, it was an unusually quiet Monday morning in the ED. We had no patients left over from night shift, and we had only seen 5 or 6 patients so far, when over the basic life support radio, we heard sirens blaring and got the call, “this is ambulance 140, do you copy?” I looked at Bob and said,” this isn't gonna be good”. The sirens gave it away. Usually when BLS transports a patient, they are stable, less emergent, they don't transport with sirens blaring. But this ambulance was running “hot”, and the call came through,” we are enroute to your facility with a 3 month old infant, cardiac arrest, medics are on board, ETA 5. “We copy, Good Sam out”. We had 5 minutes to prepare, knowing what we had to do would not be an easy task. We placed the pediatric paddles on the defibrillator, in case we had to give an electrical shock to the infant's heart. We had our medicines ready, including a “cheat sheet” with pediatric doses that are based on an infant's weight. He arrived; a beautiful 9 week old baby boy, wearing blue disposable diapers. He had a breathing tube inserted; the medics were breathing for him, and doing CPR. We continued doing the same. I started an IV. We gave him medicines and fluids through the IV. We tried to warm him, placing him under a heat lamp. But we couldn't feel any pulses when we stopped CPR, and the monitor showed only an occasional beat, something that a “dying” heart produces, certainly not something that you would associate with a 9 week old baby. We tried for an hour, but in spite of everything we did, we got no response from that tiny baby. After it was all over, Tina and I were cleaning up the room; he was so tiny and all alone, his parents still had not arrived. Tina murmured, “I wonder if he was baptized?” As soon as she said that I knew what my next task would be; I muttered out loud,” Nurses can baptize, can't they?” I gathered a basin, put some sterile water in it, and placed it on the litter beside the baby. Tina and I looked at each other with tear-stained faces, and with as much ceremony as a preacher in front of a congregation of thousands, I dipped into the water and said “I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen” I hope you see the importance of having a healthy “trinity”; the body, mind and spirit that Pastor Dwight discussed last month. Being smart and physically able to perform in our jobs or in our everyday activities is only part of a person; more importantly is the spirit that shines through in all we do. Take good care, Linda |
Copyright Salem
United Church of Christ 2005 |