Comments | elmnopo: life/death pt. 2

elmnopo

life/death pt. 2

Apr 02, 2008 23:02

for once we had an abundance of staff and the census was low today. we decided to bust ass so that we could eat a real lunch for once and hang out like normal people might. diamond dave, k. and i went to a cajun place that we never go to because they take entirely too long to prepare the food because we all finished early. grazing lazily, we did ( Read more... )

dim mak, friends, surprises, wtf, letters from a slightly older doctor

Comments 14

spider88 April 3 2008, 04:58:23 UTC

The eyes...and the skin. How the blood has obviously stopped flowing, and the cells are no longer dividing...

elmnopo April 3 2008, 05:02:32 UTC

Yeah, but something happens in that split second, and you can see it somewhat in heartbeating, braindead patient. It's like the light literally goes out.

Weird, I was just thinking of you and here you are...

streaks April 3 2008, 06:26:27 UTC

those portraits just barely seemed to scratch the surface of death, i feel like. it all felt very superficial.

elmnopo April 3 2008, 13:33:00 UTC

yeah, i was hoping for a sequence of photos depicting the change from life to death. they all look to pretty and life-like still.

streaks April 3 2008, 06:27:05 UTC

also, icu nurses were always my favorite.
that's the reason i wanted to be a nurse, back when i did.

elmnopo April 3 2008, 13:33:51 UTC

they are the best. i hate having my patients anywhere else, as they're the only ones that seem to have a clue anymore.

so what are you up to these days? we haven't chatted in forever!

mcpino April 3 2008, 06:52:56 UTC

Gah.

amberkatt April 3 2008, 09:55:45 UTC

I've never been with a person right when they died, but I've been with many animals that were euthanized. I wasn't looking into their eyes at the moment, though. I was holding them, and they just suddenly went limp and were gone, just like that. One moment a warm fuzzy friend, the next a limp and cooling corpse.

That must be very very wierd, actually seeing the moment the life departs.

it is a bit freaky. elmnopo April 3 2008, 16:33:44 UTC

one minute there, the next not so much. but it can happen slower than most people think and usually, when i see it they are already out of it via medications or coma or some such. i've yet to experience sudden death of a person that is still walking/talking.

i think it's similar to animals, but people are rarely euthenized, and i've never been to an execution. i still find it weird to examine a still warm corpse. the silence is...deafening.