“HEY NURSE… THANKS”
“Hey Nurse!”
It was a man’s voice, loud and gruff, coming from room 254. I was taking a shortcut through the telemetry unit after another busy day in the critical care unit. These weren’t my patients, so I keep going.
“Yo, blondie.”
I stopped and looked around. No other nurses were in sight, so I went to the doorway of room 254 and glanced in. A large man, with a big, friendly face was sitting up in bed. He spoke before I had a chance to open my mouth.
“Do you remember me? You were my nurse on the fourth floor.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I work in the critical care unit. You must have me confused with someone else.”
I smiled, wished him a good afternoon, and turned to go on my way. His booming voice stopped me again.
“No, wait a minute.” He start snapping his fingers. “You name is… oh, let me think…”
I turned around to see him looking up at the ceiling, a half smile on his face. Then he looked back at me.
“Jackie, right? You’ve got a long blond ponytail, don’t you?”
I was dumbfounded.
“Yes’” I said, peeking at my chest to make sure I’d taken off my name tag. (I had.) I reached back and touched the tightly braided bun on the back of my head. Then I studied his face, looking for something that might trigger my memory. His eyes were cool, blue and shine. Curly salt-and-pepper hair framed his face.
“I’m sorry. I don’t work on the fourth floor, and I just don’t remember you.”
“That’s all right, Jackie. I am just glad I got to see you again. You came into my room about three weeks ago. My heart stopped dead on me and you put those paddles on my chest. I remember you shouting out all those technical sounding words, telling everybody to clear the way. Then you took those paddles and you shocked me back to life.”
Suddenly it dawned on me: I had been in his room for a code I’d forgotten about. He was a different person then – unresponsive, with dilated pupils and a red and blue face.
“Who told you I helped you that way?” I asked, my curiosity pulling me into his room.
He laughed and looked back up the ceiling.
:Nobody told me. I was up on that ceiling there watching you. That’s how I saw your long, blond ponytail. And when you turned to look at the monitor, I saw your beautiful face. I’m so glad I got to see you again.”
He looked back down at me, his smile gone. I could see he was struggling, with his emotions.
“I wanted to say thanks. Thanks so much…”
Every time I pass room 254 now, a warm feeling, wells up inside me. I am grateful for the shortcut I took that day, and for the fact that I answered the call of “Hey Nurse.”
Jackqueline Zabresky, R.N.
“The supernatural is the natural not yet understood” – Elbert Hubbard
The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) 2011 Nursing Week theme is Value the Invaluable. It’s the core message of our very successful campaign that makes a light-hearted comparison with sports stars who are celebrated, to nurses who are truly the heart and soul of health care.
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