Thursday, November 11, 2004

in which I slip away for five minutes to thank a Veteran

The work at Day Job is well under control (my team kicks ass... plus it's generally slow at the moment), and so I had time to call the hospital switchboard and get up to the team station in a particular unit. There's a gentleman under their care, around 80 years old, and I met him last night. I was helping out in the trauma room, since it was one of those moments when we had two unstable patients at once, and my counterpart who was assigned to the room was occupied. We were "up" at the moment - I was extra, in other words, and was assigned to float to wherever I was needed most. And so I was there when this polite, dignified gentleman was brought in, in the midst of a heart attack.

The only-sort-of-"ER"-like whirl of stuff got done, he got somewhat better, and about 30 minutes after arriving, he was on his way upstairs, where he rests comfortably right now. I called back today to speak to his team because as we were all talking, it came up that this gentleman fought in Germany for the Allied side in 1945. I called the team station to make sure the people taking care of him take a minute to say thanks today.

The RN I spoke to was really glad I called. So was I.

Yeah, war is dumb. But soldiers are professionals, and their job is harder than most of ours. If you've ever been impressed by or grateful about the fact that the really violent and unstable things that happen in the world, within and between political entities, usually don't happen here; if you've noticed that they usually don't interfere with our going about daily life, the people who serve in the military have a lot to do with that. Veterans especially.

1 comment:

Teslagrl said...

One of the reasons I love you so much, Sugar :-)

(Plus it reminded me that I forgot to call and thank my Dad on Vetran's Day. D'oh!)