Hello fellow Nurse, this is your weekly handoff. Some quick and dirty nursing news that’s worth sharing. Enjoy!

Something from the Aliens

With all of the UFO and aliens news right now, I was so curious- surely there is a way that nursing has gotten involved with aliens in the past. Sure enough, found this article right away and then ended up getting sucked into an alien deep dive about this. After the Roswell UFO crash in 1947, one of the most famous in the world, an employee Glenn Davis comes forward with intriguing information. Davis was employed at a funeral home in Roswell and claims he was asked to make child size coffins for the alien bodies for the military. Davis stated he also knew the nurse who assisted with the autopsy of these beings. The video below includes clips from his interview. He would not release her name, as she apparently resigned from the military after this encounter... There is no proof of where she went after (fishy if you ask me). He stated that she first hand witnessed the bodies and was forced to assist with autopsy. She stated to Davis “This is like nothing we have ever seen before”. If true, this is huge as it suggests that the government has had physical proof of aliens since 1947. Unfortunately this interview is from the 80s and Davis has since passed, taking this nurse’s name with him.

Something that was an error

Instead of Colonoscopy prep a patient was found to have been mistakenly given Naturalyte, dialysis prep. Thus, last summer, an 81 year old man died at a hospital in Lexington of a GI bleed. It was the autopsy report that revealed the that the medication error was the cause (sorry autopsies seem to be a theme this week). The error occurred when the nurse found the medication would not scan. She called pharmacy and they sent a new label up to the nurse, thus it was able to scan despite being the incorrect medication. The solution was given through a feeding tube in the ICU and the error was not caught until the second shift around midnight. The patient died at 8 the next morning. Just like all other medication errors we have seen in the news- this nurse was not safely staffed. She was in the ICU with three patients instead of two due to short staffing. Due to the multiple process failures that occurred along the way, this nurse did not receive legal action. Thank goodness, as just weeks later she caught a lethal medication error. Every time I read about one of these cases, I just think about how easily that could have been me as similar understaffed and hurried medication administrations have frequently happened.

Something terrible

A shooting happened on Saturday July 22nd at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Northwest Portland, Oregon. Just days earlier the suspect had threatened hospital staff. He fatally killed a security guard- Officer Bobby Smallwood who was only 44 years old. He also injured a hospital employee. The suspect left the hospital, and received a ride. The driver claimed they had no idea what he had done. The suspect- Reginald Kane Jackson, who had changed his name to PoniaX Kane Callese, was shot dead at the scene when he refused to comply with officers. He was the father of three children. The most sickening thing? Ashley Heil, the mother of his children, was in the hospital at the time of the shooting as she had just given birth to their third child a few days prior. I have so many questions about this and what the hell could have happened between the birth of his child and the shooting.

Something from a Subscriber

Grape Soda

Names have been omitted in this story to protect the identity of all involved

I was working night shift as a covid nurse in the depths of the 2020 pandemic. It was November, and it was the worst the unit had seen yet. I was on my third shift and had been working with this patient all week. A woman, who in her 30s, had breast cancer and covid. A obviously horrible combination. She was deteriorating quickly. Knowing her chances of making it were slim, the team had allowed her to wait on bipap until her son, who was in the military, could arrive home to at least be with the rest of her family so they could call her before she was intubated. Everyone knew, her chances were slim. A recipe for absolute heart break.

I asked her, while we were waiting, if there was anything she needed. She said she just really wanted a grape soda. It was her favorite.

At two in the morning, in a Pepsi product only hospital, I was determined to make that small wish happen for this woman. So, not sure who else to call, I called my partner. We had only been dating a couple months at that time, but he sleepily answered the phone anyways. I told him my grape soda emergency.

No questions asked, he arrived at the hospital doors not 20 minutes later with a case of grape soda.

So while this patient passed the next day, she was able to enjoy her grape soda before. And while you may think it wasn’t beneficial to remove her bipap between sips of her soda, it was at this time that our team chose to honor what she wanted. That was still the best nursing decision I have ever made I believe… and best decision in a partner as well.

By: A nurse who won’t forget her patient.

We want to hear more from you! Submit your funniest or strangest or most heart warming nursing stories and we will pick one to share every week! This will be shared anonymously- so don’t be afraid to add some humor and flare and cursing, just like we love here!

Please submit all stories to: [email protected]

Please be conscious of HIPAA and omit any PPI or detail that may give hints to the people, hospital, and nurses involved in your story. We may slightly alter your story or change names for this reason. Your story may also be shortened and slightly altered to fit the size of the blog. Happy writing!!

If you liked this newsletter please share with your friends. Which bullet is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Email me and let me know. 1f6