The Pulses: A Short Story

He made it and it took some pain away, and i thought maybe i would feel way better knowing he's alive. As time went by i felt like i was going to drop out, but i had people here at phoenix who actually cared and got me some help. What haunts me now is losing my grandfather that year because the day before he passed, i was at the hospital visiting him, and he was so well and he was ready to get up and leave back home. The hospital told us he just needed to stay for one more day, and i had to go to school that morning, so i told him i would see him later that

You could hear the ambulance's loud sirens as they came closer to our house. They grabbed bags from the ambulance. My sister ran outside to lead the paramedics to my mom. They reached into their bag a

Most people don’t know how it feels to lose a family member that had done service, my Grandfather had died when I was in Third Grade which was in 2011. He was a veteran of the Cold War. His cause of death was cancer. The doctors said he wasn’t going to survive. The sad part is that he died just basically a week before his 70th birthday.

I wanted to interview someone outside of the healthcare field because I feel that we are “trained” to deal with death and the dying differently. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I feel that now that I understand death and dying more because I am a nurse; my thoughts and feelings would be different from before I was a nurse. So, that brings me to my mother. When my grandfather was sick her and my grandmother decided to keep him at home and have hospice come to the house weekly to care for him outside of what they weren’t able to do themselves. They kept him home until the day he passed away and my mother was beside him every day. He had Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Working as Certified Nurse Assistant at North Caroline Veteran Home, was my first experience working with the dynamics of aging, disability, death and dying and loss and grieving beside the textbook knowledge. I have seen people I assist daily passed as well as comforting their family. It was not an easy experience or thing to get use to! Especially when one of the client passed during my shift and I must clean his body and make him look “presentable”. I never thought I would do a job of a coroner, from a fear of cleaning emotionless body. However, the expience assisting people who know could passed ay an hour made me appreciate life much more. Anyhow, what I have learned is that there is no right or wrong way to grieve. Grief does not always

When I got over to him, his eyes were open, I said his name again, he did nothing, just stared in a completely blank stare (he looked like he was dead). I picked him up, he was completely unresponsive, I checked for a pulse and breathing. Thankfully he had both. As I was holding him I began giving him a slight shake to try to get his attention. I was terrified and started yelling for my five year old

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

I howled out loud and begged him to wake up as I felt I was at a loss. I didn't know this man, but I longed so hard for his survival. When the ambulance showed up the man displayed mild responsiveness, however I worried that he was not going to make it. As I looked at his beaten body being carted away, I felt my whole perception of the world

I sat there and trying to convince myself that he was fine and he would fix the problem or he would be helped from a passerby. Struggling on what to do, I start my car intending to leave the area as quickly as I could. I didn’t want to see if he needed help, but I had a strong desire to see him up again.

Halfway home I saw this woman crying over something ,but I was not close enough to see it. Being the nosey person I am I just had to go see what the big fuss was about. Not the best idea ,but I still went on with it. I walked up to the women the tapped on her shoulder; when she turned around I was frozen we fear. The object was no long unidentifiable ,nope it was as clear as day that the women had been crying over a dead guys body. I was petrified, I could not think, talk, or even begin to understand why this beautiful women was crying over this dead body. So I asked her, “umm..ma'am… are you ok?”,she did not answer the first time so I poked her again and asked “do you want me to call 911?” that's when she finally reacted. The women went ballistic on me and began to call me very mean names she jolited up and made a move as if she was going to come after me so I did what everyone would do...run. I ran till my legs gave out. I stopped when I realized I had no clues where I was and did not have my phone on me. My head was spinning I know that this is when I was going to die. I did not have it in me to keep on going; my feet were bleeding from these heels that I somehow still had on. I was just about to lose all my hope ,but then I saw bus stop and decided I needed to sit down and rest. I had not realized just how tired I was until I felt my eyelid flider

The death of a loved one is one of the most challenging events I have had to overcome. The summer of 2014, I was just going into my junior year, was one for the books. It was an absolutely amazing summer. My sister had her first baby in May and we were getting to make his first summer his best, but little did we know it would also be his last. We lost him at the end of July. It was one of the hardest things to cope with. So many unanswered questions still to this day stand.

It was my first time volunteering overnight at the Ambulance Corps. By this time, I had already been an EMT for about 3 years and a CPR instructor for a year. A call came through at approximately 3:00 am for a 50 year old man was having trouble breathing. My crew and I were the first on the scene. As my partner began gathering equipment to bring in the house, I ran inside. First, I met the man’s wife who quickly guided me into their bedroom where the man was lying in bed. “Hello, I am Brooke. I am an EMT. What is going on tonight, sir?” There was no response. Immediately, I check for a pulse and respirations. There was nothing. It was at this moment where I pulled him to the ground and conducted CPR for the first time.

Ray was my dad's only brother in Missouri that would stay in touch with him all the time. My Grandma, was just really worried and just lost it when he told her what happened. She booked a flight, that day. And flew out the next day. When she arrived at the hospital she went back to the CICU and stayed back there for at least two and half hours. Rays other brother Jason Portillo, and his family drove down from California. It took a few days for them to arrive. The doctor came in and said, “We are not sure he is going to make it unless we put him on life support.” Erika decided to put him on life support until his dad got there to see him. A few days later my Grandpa had arrived and spent some time back in the CICU. I decided I would go back there to see him. When i got back to the room I lost it. It just is not something you or anyone else can prepare

Though some may say, myself included, that the death of a family member is one of the hardest, toughest, traumatic things to deal with, it also comes with a good side. That good side is that it brings people together to not only mourn over a loss, but to celebrate the life of someone great. One can either sink from a situation like this, or one can rise. I feel like my family and I chose to rise from this. We were all changed in so many ways. My grandma, Veronica, was especially changed the most. She and my granddad did absolutely everything together. They

Once, in the first week following his passing, I came through my front door and looked at the area where he would usually be sitting or lying. I called for him with the foolish notation that he would appear and come running to me. But of course, he did not. Then, I walked past his empty food bowls and tears started running down my face. It was a shattering reminder that he was gone and never coming back.