#12: Code Blue

I only slept for 1 hour on my last call night, which was unusual because it was on a Sunday night. Usually not much is going on Sunday night but at 2 AM there was one patient who had a minute-long run of a cardiac arrhythmia and I went to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit in order to ask for some advice about what to do. As I walked in, I heard over the hospital-wide loudspeakers "Code Blue Cardiac ICU" and I was like, "Holy crap, that's right here!" I walk around the corner and there was a full-blown code going on with chest compressions and shocking and all. I went up to the person who was running the code, introduced myself as a surgical intern, and asked if she needed a central line. I put in a femoral line even though I couldn't feel a pulse in the guys leg but somehow it worked. It wasn't the first code that I've been in, but it was weird because I didn't even know the patient at all. I felt very detatched from the whole situation almost like I was acting on autopilot and didn't know why I was doing the things I was doing. I would have felt much better about the situation except the guy didn't make it through the code.

Last call night: Sunday, August 13th.
Patients covered last call night: 40+.
Amount of sleep last call night: 1 hour.
Currently reading: Greenfield's chapter on Colon Cancer (still).
Currently watching: I came home early today (around 4 PM, trying to cut down on hours) and fell asleep watching Arthur and Friends.
Next call night: Thursday, August 17th.