Personal Narrative: A Woman

You were in a terrible car accident. One that sent you into that putrid hospital across the street from Walmart where all the stoners hung out. Of course, even the paramedics were incompetent in your town. They were trying, I guess. They were able to successfully pull you from your collapsed car that had been flipped over seven times. Or so you were told. Well I guess you weren’t told, but you overheard. You were unconscious, but you had full capability of your hearing, only you had no way of communicating this. You were around the clock fed heavy sedatives through the IV tapped to the inside of your limp arm.

“Tell me more than that! You should know these kind of things. Is she going to have to stay at the hospital?”

cross into surgery with her, and the nurse confirmed that she could. The client’s anxiety appeared

“Yeah, she’s in cryo for now but will be fine. For you, I have a special dose of this cellular restructuring serum that should do the trick.”

[It] was three days after her second donation, when they finally let me in to see her in the small hours of the morning. She was in a room by herself, and it looked like they’d done everything they could for her . . . Now I took one glance at her in that hospital bed under the dull light and recognized the look on her face, which I’d seen on donors often enough before. It was like she was willing her eyes to see right insider herself, so she could patrol and marshal all the better the separate areas of pain in her body . . . She was, strictly speaking, still conscious, but she wasn’t accessible to me as I stood there beside her metal bed. (Ishiguro, 235-236)

Everything around went blank and the only scene that I could see was my hands, compressing on this man’s chest. For what feels like hours, was only a minute when my partner and the paramedic came into the room and told me to switch out doing compressions with them. Within an instant, four other paramedics come in the room. One medic instructed me to go get information off of his wife. Without hesitation, I went to

Breathing deeply, she tucked her legs under her and rested her elbow on the arm of the chair. “I really don’t think I need to… she is non responsive, lost in her own world, I need to ensure that there are no neurological issues that are contributing to this.”

“Mom, you’ve been in a medically induced coma for a month and today you had a liver transplant.” Bryna tells me

"Let me see. She should be moved to a room in about two hours. She had a lot to be fixed so, just be patient. The doctor will be with you are soon as her can," Monica informed. She seemed calm about this and I couldn't understand why.

Reign knew she had to be strong so she wiped her face and looked into the doctor in his eyes. She placed her hand on his shoulders as she asked, “What’s next?” “Well we can take her off the machine that helps her breathe or we can leave her on it, but there’s no guarantee she will begin to breathe on her own.”

I looked at the monitor, just watching her blood pressure and heart rate. Ten minutes later I could see that all of her vital signs were stable. As soon as I turned around, I saw that Dr. Pearce had sewn and patched the wound. “Great job” she said smiling at me.

I felt helpless sitting there in a hospital bed without knowing what was going on, why were all the nurses taking care of me? Why

“Give me a minute, and I’ll get her medication,” Joshua said, going toward the stairway.

I allowed her to express her concerns to her husband using “I” statements. In turn, her husband summarized what she stated, which showed that he was actively listening.  However, he did indicate to her that school and work take most of her time.  He added that they can spend valuable time together after she finishes her degree. She was perturbed by his response and stated that she was worried that by the time she is finished with school they will have drifted apart. I encouraged the couple to plan for a date night just one day a week.  Before advancing to the other section, both had agreed that Saturday’s would be their designated date night.

Initially it appears as if the dilemma revolves around what the physician's next move should be. When actually the real dilemma is who owns the rights to make this life or death decision. It is clear what the patient wants for his course of treatment. It is equally clear what his mother will allow his treatment to be. Each has equally selfish reasons for wanting their decision to be upheld. The mother does not want to lose her son and will at all costs keep him alive. She feels he is romanticizing death and has no real concept of what dying means. Her son lived with cystic fibrosis since age four and has seen many of his friends placed on ventilators only to later die. He does not want that quality of life in his final days. The physician is supportive of the patient's request but is placed in an awkward legal position if he abides by the patients request. The nurse who has acted as an intermediary throughout this entire process continues to acts as a patient advocate and ensure the patients rights are observed and that his wishes are acknowledged.