We discharged a lady today who's been with us on med-surg for 63 days. Complications on top of complications. There were weeks none of us thought she'd leave.
The day team lined the hall and clapped her out. I came in early off nights just to see it. She was crying, her husband was crying, our tech who basically did her hair every morning for two months was crying. I wasn't, but only because I was too tired to.
I forget sometimes that we get these. Anyone else have a long hauler they'll never forget?
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Post replyHappy for her, honestly. But I also think about the long haulers who don't get the hallway send-off, the ones who go to hospice or a facility after 60 days and nobody claps. Those ones stick with me more than the wins do.
We had a guy for 81 days after a bowel perforation that just kept finding new ways to go wrong. By the end we knew his grandkids' names and his coffee order. He came back about a year later with a tray of cookies and walked the whole unit on his own. Half of us had to step into the med room for a minute.
The tech doing her hair every morning for two months is the part that got me. That's the stuff nobody charts and families never forget.
Love this, and I guarantee someone in admin is going to bring her up at the next meeting as an LOS outlier instead of the reason we do this job.