CEUfast Nurse Chronicles, Volume 3: Funny & Touching Stories From the Lives of Passionate Nurses 

“I work in a hospital pre-op holding department. I called the surgical floor to get a phone report on a patient scheduled for urology surgery.

The nurse told me that Mr. Patient was going home today. I was shocked and was wondering why is he on the surgery schedule. I called the surgery desk to inform them.

They told me they will contact the surgeon.  

Within the hour, I get a call from the O.R. desk that Mr. Patient who is 88-years-old and oriented x 4, is going to have surgery. They tell me that they will send for the patient.  I spoke to the patient and confirmed his consent and had him sign for the anesthesia consent.

Then, the doctor came in and told the patient he has to do the surgery to control the bleeding.  

Then, Mr. Patient calls me over to his cubicle. He tells me ‘Nurse please I do not want the surgery. I want to die.’  I ask the patient if he understood what the doctor told him  I reiterated  that he is bleeding and he needs the surgery. He tells me again, ‘I don't want the surgery. I want to die,  let me bleed.’

I felt so bad for Mr. Patient. I truly wanted to have him sign AMA form and walk him out of the hospital. I would also help him call a taxi to get him home. The surgeon hearing our conversation talks to the Mr. Patient again and convinced him he needed surgery. He reluctantly agreed. Every patient is a human being with rights that needs to be respected. We in the healthcare field should understand that as a priority. Everyone has a right to refuse treatment and a right to die.

Submitted with compassion for the elderly,  Pre-op R.N., Lillian Yamashita

The Gift of a Free Nursing Education Used to Help 80,000 in Haiti

After visiting Haiti years ago and feeling helpless about the thousands of people [in distress from the 2010 earthquake], (especially in the remote mountains with absolutely no access to medical help or clean drinking water, causing high death rates and intense suffering from malnutrition and disease), I was blessed to have someone pay my way to LPN  school while I was caring for two children on my own.

After graduation, I worked ICU, CCU, with occasional visits to Haiti, until the job I loved as a nurse grew heavier each day. 

I have carried [children] 18 hrs with teams in open air clinics, on rugged leaky boats.

[They] were dying, so swollen with kwashiorkor malnutrition. They were suffering, so weak with pain and dysentery, that many would die on the boats or soon after arrival in the pathetic hospitals.

I remembered the moms [were] so desperate that walked down mountains all night carrying their babies in tears hoping for hope! Then some moms [were] so desperate they would wade out in the water as we left and in tears almost throw their babies in the boat so they would have a chance to live.

I prayed, quit my job, did speaking engagements, fund raising, and began to host many teams into the mountains with no medical care.  We rented a house in PAP, placed workers, and started bringing the dying kids in. We saw miracles after miracles.

Today, we have five acres where hundreds have been rescued, many churches and teams still come from the U.S., paying their own expenses and 70 Haitian employees caring for 120 angels daily and more being rescued . 

We assist many orphanages that started after the earthquake. Many have little or no food, many still have never had medical treatment or even a check up. We have looked death in the face, taking the lives of many and buried so many children over the years. 

We are working on many mountain projects , as 1000 kids are fed weekly.

We operate a clinic, water projects etc. Our goal now is a hospital for 80, 000 people.

We need your prayers and another big miracle!!

Why? How?? All because that beautiful 91-year-old angel before she went to heaven told me she would pay my way to nursing school, little did she know then but will one day will of the thousands of children who have found life. She put the most precious gift into my hands, my nursing education.

I can never thank God enough for this precious gift that continues to open hearts. I really believe that as nurses, each one of us called in the area God places us to be His hands extended. Please always remember that it's not just knowledge, but compassion that makes the difference.

Miriam Frederick Dr, New Life Children's Home, PAP Haiti

(This entry was written in Spanish, here’s the English translation below)

My name is Nelly Morales. I want to share my something from my 30 year career. I took care of a 78-year-old woman for two years who became terminally ill with Alzheimer’s. She was in a nursing home and I was helping her as she was dying.  I sat next to her while her husband looked at us with sadness. I couldn’t stand seeing her like that. While she faded away, I rested with her until her last breath and I saw a plume of smoke leave her body. This smoke  was something I’d never seen, not in all my life assisting patients in their last moments. For me, this is something I believed needed to be shared, thank you for making it possible.

Nelly Morales, CNA.