Sometimes I absolutely adore working at a hospital in an Ob/Gyne office. I love the patients. I love seeing all the happy mommy's-to-be. I love all my co-workers. I love seeing all the cute little babies. I love sitting in on ultrasounds and seeing the little miracles up close. I just
love so much about my job!
But then there are days like today. Days where they make me go down to the ER to drop something off...and I have to walk through wound care and the burn ward to get there. Days where I have to go downstairs to the basement and sort through literally hundreds of patient files to find that one folder we need. Days where our usually peppy mommy's are very grumpy and hormonal. Days like
today...when someone actually
dies right outside our office.
To clarify... Mondays are our short days—we all leave the office at about 3PM. Our patients were done for the day around 1PM, so after that we went about our usual tasks and routines. Around 230PM or so, one of our nurses walked outside the office to go put blood tests into the pick up lockbox out front. Suddenly she came rushing back in, white-faced, and announced, "There's a dead man outside!" Now most of thought she was just being silly or over exaggerating. But sure enough when we peeked out the door there was a little old man sitting in one of the lobby waiting chairs, slumped over dead.
We were all aghast. When did this happen?? And how?? There was a doctor from one of the other offices checking the old man. After a bit of examination he declared what we already knew: the little man was dead. And even worse? The man had rigor mortis. That means that his limbs had started to stiffen, making them very difficult to move out of their locked positions. Rigor mortis only happens
at least two hours after someone dies. I was mortified. Seriously. That man had been sitting there dead for
over two hours. Why hadn't anyone done anything?! Why hadn't anyone said something?! The man
looked dead—there was no mistaking it. He also was wearing pajamas and no shoes. Clearly he looked lost and out of place! And yet not one person spoke up until now.
Eventually security and the paramedics showed up and took over. It was so sad. I was definitely pretty shook up when it was time to head home. It's days like these that I find myself asking, "
Why do I work here?" I
hate blood. I don't do well in hospitals. And yet...I work in one??? Sometimes it seems to silly to mention to people that I actually get really grossed out by hospitals. But. Despite the bad days, despite crazy things like this, despite the whole hospital thing in general...I really do love it. Like I said, I love the patients. My co-workers. The mommys and babies. I love everything about my office. So I have to put up with these fleeting crazy moments. Because truly, it is all worth it in the end. :)
This is my "Why do I work here?!" face! ;)
