What a week....it's been very busy around here, including 48 hours of triage. And that included a case where we had a family consent to donate IF it could happen in the next 4 hours. Can you say, "All Hell break loose?" Sure you can. We did it though-liver and kidneys, 3 more people off the list.
If you have the time(and I do, now that it's the weekend, finally), check out this week's Grand Rounds over at Blog, MD and Change of Shift over at Codeblog:Tales of a nurse-the very first medical blog I ever read, BTW. Well, I've got a cup of tea and a lot of reading to do. See ya.
6 comments:
As another DC well done for doing it in 4 hours, the average time for ours, in Western Australia 14 hours but that is because of our isolation and trying to meet commercial airlines. I suppose that for the xmatches with the kidneys it is a matter of putting them in eskies and waiting for them.
Denyse
Hey TC...I posted on here a few weeks ago. I recently applied for a TC position here locally. I have ER and OR experience only...no ICU. Do they usually hire TC's with ER only experience? Do you think I can fly with that? I hope so b/c I really want it...
Eskies-that's so cute. We have pumps so the kids can stay on ice for a day or so. I found out later that these kids got discarded cause they were no good. Lucky, the liver got transplanted by an aggressive center. Our cases usually take at least 12 hrs. This was really extraordinary.
Good luck w/the TC position. Any critical care/ER experience is good. We have a few TC's who aren't nurses, but this is becoming rarer, I think. I talked somewhere about becoming a TC here on the blog...I can't remember when. I'd scroll through my archives if you're interested.
Well, TC, if you wanna scroll I can use all of the advice I can get. I am an RN with ER/Cath lab/OR experience, but the manager said she was concerned b/c I had no ICU experience. I feel like I can do it just fine, just might need to read up a bit in my critical care nursing book a tad. Part of my interviewing process was to go out on a call with another TC. It was incredible! I am so excited about the possibility of getting this job, although they have warned me that the training program is a rigourous 3 months of hell. Great $$, though. Basically, I will have no life. But, even if I don't get the job, I enjoy reading on your blog. Keep up the good work!!!! I had my 2nd interview over a week ago and have heard nothing, but we shall see...keep your fingers crossed for me!
CB
Prisoners and donations?
"Prison inmate get liver transplant" monroe, wa
http://www.king5.com/
topstories/stories/
NW_040407WABinmateliver
transplantTP.314a64a4.html
I could see donation knowing where it's going. But not knowing? NO WAY!
Bad/Unclear ethics do scare donors away.
An easier URL for the prisoner story: http://tinyurl.com/34et8q
Who decides who gets transplanted? Donation coordinators don't have a say in it; if someone comes up on the list, he gets the organ offer. Transplant centers have varying criteria for selecting their candidates, but all of them do a considerable evaluation for social as well as medical factors. There have been plenty of prisoners who have been denied transplants. We don't know the circumstances of this patient's history so it's hard to make an informed judgment as to his suitability.
Not all recipients are wonderful human beings; not all donors are, either. (And don't get me started on us transplant coordinators!) But our society has decreed that prisoners are eligible for access to the health care system, and organ transplantation is part of that system. So we give them a shot. I wouldn't want the job of deciding who lives or dies; I have to trust the people who do make that decision to make the best decisions for their patients and for society.
Choosing not to donate may prevent a prisoner from getting an organ. But the non-donated organ may have been destined for a child, a parent, a grandparent, or a spouse. In any event, it's a fellow human being whose life will be saved through a transplant. Isn't that the most important thing?
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