A Doctor 's Mistake
It started off as a normal year, I had just finished my residency and now I could practice medicine on my own without someone looking over my shoulder at all times. Everything was completely normal until she was carted into the ER room with a low heart and respiratory rate.
I didn 't know it at the time, but I was about to have the year of my life. I knew she was trouble from the moment I saw her carted through the door; however, she needed my help, and I was bound by law to give it to her.
When I first met her I told myself that I wouldn 't get attached, she would have to be just another patient if I wanted to be able to treat her. As I approached her, I told myself over and over that she was just another patient. If I …show more content…
According to all of her symptoms and her chart she had to be going into kidney failure. When the kidneys shut down your whole body shuts down. Your kidneys filter your blood, when your blood isn 't filtered, it causes damage to all of the other organs in the body. As far as I could tell, she was in the early stages so we still had a chance. I put her on the transplant list as fast as I could. The sooner she got a kidney, the better chance she would have to walk out of here happy and healthy. No one could know that I was her family or I would be taken off the case immediately. Nobody in the hospital was as capable as I was when it came to transplants; I am paid millions of dollars a year because I am the best young general surgeon in the nation. A little bit of me died when I had to walk in the door and introduce myself as her doctor. Believe me, I may have made the decision years ago to give up all of my parental rights, but now more than ever was regretting that decision. Seeing her lay there as I explained her options and what I could do for her while we waited for her kidney killed me inside. I could tell that she was on her last legs of life; she was a sort of pale, yellow that you only see when people are about to die. Every fiber of my being made me want to hug her and hold her close and tell her anything and everything I could; however, I knew that she was happy with her …show more content…
Every day as I sat there watching her die slowly I realized that I was going to have to do something if I wanted her to make it through the kidney failure. She was getting worse as the days went on and I knew that if I didn 't do something soon she would be gone. That was when I made the decision to do something highly illegal and dangerous. I took her off of dialysis, which is one of the reasons she is still alive, in order to help save her life and get her a kidney. Taking her off of dialysis would mean that we only had a matter of hours to get her a new kidney, but it also meant that any kidney that would become available would come directly to her. Taking her off of dialysis took a lot of work; I had to convince anyone and everyone that the dialysis was not helping sustain her life. Her condition was changing rapidly as the hours went on. When the call finally came in we had only a matter of two hours to get the kidney here and into her system if we were to have a chance. Everything had gone exactly as it was supposed to: taking her off of dialysis moved her up the transplant list, she had gotten the kidney she needed, and we were prepping her for surgery as the kidney came in. Right as the kidney came in she flat-lined. Her blood wasn 't being filtered properly and it was causing her to poison herself. There was nothing that I could do; her other vital organs had been
It started off as a normal year, I had just finished my residency and now I could practice medicine on my own without someone looking over my shoulder at all times. Everything was completely normal until she was carted into the ER room with a low heart and respiratory rate.
I didn 't know it at the time, but I was about to have the year of my life. I knew she was trouble from the moment I saw her carted through the door; however, she needed my help, and I was bound by law to give it to her.
When I first met her I told myself that I wouldn 't get attached, she would have to be just another patient if I wanted to be able to treat her. As I approached her, I told myself over and over that she was just another patient. If I …show more content…
According to all of her symptoms and her chart she had to be going into kidney failure. When the kidneys shut down your whole body shuts down. Your kidneys filter your blood, when your blood isn 't filtered, it causes damage to all of the other organs in the body. As far as I could tell, she was in the early stages so we still had a chance. I put her on the transplant list as fast as I could. The sooner she got a kidney, the better chance she would have to walk out of here happy and healthy. No one could know that I was her family or I would be taken off the case immediately. Nobody in the hospital was as capable as I was when it came to transplants; I am paid millions of dollars a year because I am the best young general surgeon in the nation. A little bit of me died when I had to walk in the door and introduce myself as her doctor. Believe me, I may have made the decision years ago to give up all of my parental rights, but now more than ever was regretting that decision. Seeing her lay there as I explained her options and what I could do for her while we waited for her kidney killed me inside. I could tell that she was on her last legs of life; she was a sort of pale, yellow that you only see when people are about to die. Every fiber of my being made me want to hug her and hold her close and tell her anything and everything I could; however, I knew that she was happy with her …show more content…
Every day as I sat there watching her die slowly I realized that I was going to have to do something if I wanted her to make it through the kidney failure. She was getting worse as the days went on and I knew that if I didn 't do something soon she would be gone. That was when I made the decision to do something highly illegal and dangerous. I took her off of dialysis, which is one of the reasons she is still alive, in order to help save her life and get her a kidney. Taking her off of dialysis would mean that we only had a matter of hours to get her a new kidney, but it also meant that any kidney that would become available would come directly to her. Taking her off of dialysis took a lot of work; I had to convince anyone and everyone that the dialysis was not helping sustain her life. Her condition was changing rapidly as the hours went on. When the call finally came in we had only a matter of two hours to get the kidney here and into her system if we were to have a chance. Everything had gone exactly as it was supposed to: taking her off of dialysis moved her up the transplant list, she had gotten the kidney she needed, and we were prepping her for surgery as the kidney came in. Right as the kidney came in she flat-lined. Her blood wasn 't being filtered properly and it was causing her to poison herself. There was nothing that I could do; her other vital organs had been