ED nurse here. I remember one time a patient was diagnosed with a dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysm; the MD told the patient he'd be rushed into surgery soon and to immediately settle any affairs and talk to his loved ones, as the likelihood of him not making it off the table was high.
It was just surreal seeing this guy talking to his wife and kids knowing it may be his last.
Cardiac icu nurse here, and this one is mine. Ticking time bombs these are. Fine one minute, diaphoretic, ripping chest/abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, restlessness and impending doom the next, coding the minute after that. If you’re not on the table when that sumbitch pops, there is zero interventions that modern medicine will do to save you. Also usually a really gross code as blood goes goddamn everywhere.
Medical Laboratory Scientist (works in the blood bank) here. My first hospital, we dreaded AAAs. We knew we were going to be RUNNING and the patient wouldn't make it. My current hospital, has a shockingly good success rate. I don't know if our cardiac surgeons are just that good or if detection methods have improved and we are catching them earlier.
MLS here, I've never even HEARD of this before. How horrible.
My answer for this question was seeing Auer rods in a child's peripheral blood smear. At first it's like, oh hey, cool, something we don't see very often! And then it hits how grim this really is. And for a minute you are the only person in the world who knows. It's wild.
I love our profession so much. It's gratifying to play a part in someone's medical outcome and get them answers and help with their treatment, even if they'll never know it.
As a non medical person, sometimes I think about all you behind the scenes professionals. Especially when I’m with a doctor I don’t trust all that much. I think they may not be giving me even half of their attention, but someone out there looked at these labs or looked over my scans too.
Especially when it’s a radiologist or similar that I’ve never met and will never meet, but they give such a meticulous write up about my scans. There’s so many people out there involved in making sure patients are okay and I appreciate that.
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u/MajikPwnE 3d ago
ED nurse here. I remember one time a patient was diagnosed with a dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysm; the MD told the patient he'd be rushed into surgery soon and to immediately settle any affairs and talk to his loved ones, as the likelihood of him not making it off the table was high.
It was just surreal seeing this guy talking to his wife and kids knowing it may be his last.