Not Your Average Train Ride

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Good evening blog readers! I know usually post about every three months… I promise, I’ll get better! This post is also long overdue. I’m going to share a story with you about my train ride home….

So when I say a nurse’s job is never done, I mean it. a nurse’s job is never done. It was a hot summer day (I know, sounds so cliche), and I was on the train home after a long night shift followed by an ACLS training.. Yes! I was beat tired. So I’m riding the train, half asleep and hoping not to miss my stop when I began to gaze out the window as the train approached its next stop. What I saw was quite to my surprise and almost dismay. It was a man slumped over on the ground in the arms of his girlfriend. His girlfriend was frantic yelling out “wake up! what did you do?!, somebody help me!” My heart began to get excited pounding through my chest faster than ever. And in a split second I thought about a million thoughts. Do I get off the train? Oh, no if I get off, I’ll miss my stop, Is he joking? What of he’s not? Is he dead?… After that thought I immediately grabbed by vera bradley work bad and ran off the train in my danskos yelling “I’m a nurse, what happened?!??” The girlfriend stated that he had taken something, and I immediately thought drug over dose. The man was blue, sweaty, and pulseless!!! I began compressions right away. While dong compressions I interviewed the girlfriend for his history. The train was at a stand still. The men that worked on the train had phones calling 9-1-1 and the passengers glared out the windows with their hands covering their mouths. Another nurse came out to help with compressions and pulse checks. Just as we finished about 3 cycles, we gained a weak and thready pulse and the paramedics arrived! Of course narcan was administered along with O2, the man slowly began to pink up… My job there was done. When I grabbed my work bag and walked my aching knees and scuffed danskos back on the train I stumbled into a standing ovation! It felt like a scene from a movie Lol. What I though of as not such a big deal was heroic in the eyes of the passengers. I’m a nurse, an ED nurse at that… saving lives is what I do for a living, no biggie… You see as a nurse we are constantly expecting the worse that could happen, whether we are working or not… we are always prepared. My job is never done. I love what I do and I live for what I do. I am a nurse, a life saver, and a compassion vessel. I am proud to have saved a life at a train stop, and would do it again in a heart beat, no questions asked. #alwaysanurse

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