My husband injured his back and being a man with the responsibility of keeping it together for the family, he continued to go to work day after day. After three weeks, the injury was really starting to take its toll and slowly claiming every inch of him. Severe pain set in and for one solid week we didn’t sleep and he suffered with pain, cramping and numbness that were so intense it really created fear in me. I did whatever I could to help ease his pain but to no avail, he just continued to suffer. In desperation he went to the doctor and was sent for x-rays. Unfortunately, the source of the pain could not be found. Since I had grown up with a mom who loved to rearrange the furniture, including moving the washing machine, resulting in herniated disks, I had a pressing feeling that this was his injury. With the days passing and the pain beginning to debilitate him it was hard not to see the glass half empty!
Another sleepless night with unbearable pain, my husband becomes unable to sit, stand or lay down. I finally put my foot down and demanded that we visit the Emergency Room. After thirty minutes of physically struggling to get from the bed to the car we are on our way to the hospital and I am already feeling more positive. When we arrived it was extremely crowded; we signed in and we waited… and we waited. Sitting in a wheelchair, pitifully uncomfortable, he looked at me with a tear in his eye and he said, “I am in so much pain and I cannot move my leg.”
Now, I am not the kind of person to demand attention over someone else in need but my heart just became so heavy laden with sadness. In desperation, I walked to the front desk and I don’t remember what I said exactly but by the grace of God the Chief of Nursing happened to have stopped by the front desk. The moment I looked into her eyes and pleaded, she took compassion on me. She found a recliner in which to move him, while she looked into getting him to see a doctor as quickly as possible. What an angel she was and from that moment on, when the golden doors of the ER opened up every single person shared the same soul quality. Suddenly, we were treated with compassion and great care and for several hours I observed their character and their cohesiveness with fellow employees. Each act of kindness was truly an act of the heart. The ER staff was so dedicated to their jobs and when someone’s life was in danger they would stop, place a hand on the distraught family member and calmly talk them through their experience.
Sometimes it is difficult to get really good medical care with so many illnesses and anxiety disorders that exist today. At times it is easy to become frustrated with our medical community but then again we must realize that modern medicine is still a scientific conjecture. I would say it has become difficult for doctors, nurses and medical assistants to act with compassion because their daily jobs have grown to be just too demanding. However, that night in the ER proved this theory incorrect.
The amount of patients that the Emergency Room has to treat is by far more than a doctor’s office - so how is it that this group of people all single handedly maintained compassion with the ability to stop the clock, look at each patient in the eye and assure them that they would do anything and everything to find the root of the patient’s problem, all the while, chaos and stress multiplies around them. This event was such and enlightening view of our medical community and I would like to choose to see the glass half full. I will forever remember each staff member that night that helped us.
11:45 p.m. we walked out of the ER with the diagnosis of herniated disks and a compressed nerve, medication to help ease the horrific pain and one of our area’s top neurosurgeons who had already viewed his films with a written prescription for surgery.
Compassion- it is a definite learned emotion that can be a tremendous struggle that reflects immense self-less-ness. Compassion for others can change the world one patient at a time!
This article originally published on January 30, 2008.
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