Lydia Velez - Fearless

 

I'm at the nurses' station on 8 South. I'm looking at my computer, and I'm getting my assignment for the day, and just my normal routine, when from the corner from 841, here comes Amanda, running practically. She comes, and she looks frantic, and she looks scared. I've never seen that in nine years as a nurse. I'm like, “What's the matter Amanda?” “You have to come. You have to come." "What do you mean?" "You know that patient, that patient with that tube?" I'm thinking to myself, okay. She's never seen a feeding tube, a PEG tube. It's a bigger incision than usual. But she's nervous. So, I'm like, "It's okay. I took report. I saw it. It's fine." "No, no. You have to come." So, I said, "Okay, let me listen." She does look frantic. She looks sweaty. I said, "Okay, let me go."

 

I go into the room, and she starts unveiling the patient, removing gowns and everything and the dressing. And here's something bulging. And all of a sudden, I'm thinking of a fetus in a mother's womb that's just moving, all this motion. I'm looking at the motion, and I'm like, "Oh-oh." When in front of my eyes, out comes out the intestines, and I'm thinking, oh my God, what to do? Nine years as a nurse, I've never been prepared for this. They don't train you how to do this. I go by the books, I do everything by the books, and I'm like, "What am I going to do?" I'm looking at his vital signs. They're stable. Looks good. Blood pressure looks good. I tell him, "You're going to be okay." Meanwhile, everything's starting to pop out wormy like, they're coming through.

 

So, I jump onto the bed. That's the other thing that I decided to do. [audience laughter] I jump onto the bed. They don't tell you to jump on a bed. I straddle myself over the patient. And here I am holding the intestines down, and I'm looking at him. "You're going to be fine. You're going to be fine." I said, "Amanda, give me some saline." "What's saline?" "Are you kidding? Call a code. Hit that blue button. Call a code. Help." Everybody starts running in, and racing in, and here comes this fabulous team. "What do you need?" "Saline. Saline. Lots of saline." 

 

They start pouring a lot of saline, I'm drenched, I'm wet. They're all looking at his vital signs. Blood pressure starts dropping a little bit. He's 82 years old. He's stable, but because he can't eat, he has this tube. So, now there's no tube. So, they prepared an operating room. So, they tell me, "Lydia, you cannot move. We're going to move the bed, the patient, and you." And I'm like, "What?" [audience laughter] So, I'll straddle over the patient. Okay, these are my intestines. [chuckles] I'm soaking wet. Saline's being poured, more saline gauze. All of a sudden, I feel the bed's being moved, and the motion and everything is back when they're like, "Don't get off. Don't get off." "Are you kidding? I can't," trying to save this life. 

 

I get onto the elevator, everything opens fine, go into the elevator, everything's backwards. They wheel you in backwards. I get to the third floor, the operating room, and I feel like the doors went-- They opened these doors. And in front of me, there was a lot of people prepared for this emergency. They had gowns and gloves and masks, and I had no gloves on throughout the whole time. Secretion and fluids. I'm looking at them. Here comes this intern. I think he's an intern. He stands next to me. He says, "You're going to jump off as I'm going to jump on." I'm like, "Are you kidding? These are my intestines." [audience laughter] 

 

I'm looking at him like, "Really?" He's like, "Yeah, really." So, I jump off, and I felt like I was a gymnastics star at that moment. I jumped off, he jumped on. And I felt like going, "Ta-da," [audience laughter] because it was an event. I was soaking wet. I looked down, soaking wet. Here are people ready to help me change into paper gowns. Later on, I go up, I get changed. About maybe three, four hours later, I wanted to see this patient, because I really worried and I really wanted to save this life. So, I go to the ICU room. I go in there, and I felt like this hero, this fearless person. "Lydia, come. Come in. Here's the patient." 

 

So, they showed me where the patient, said, "He made it. Thank you, thank you, thank you" I'm hearing thank you throughout. I saw him, and he was on a respirator. He looked comfortable. He looked good. And I said, "Wow. After this, I could do anything." And I did. After that, that was that moment in time that I became fearless. I did all these things to try to save this life, and it made me feel more powerful.

 

And a week later, our manager calls us into a meeting. She's thanking everybody, thanking everybody, and she was thanking me. She also thanked me for listening to that student. Should I have not listened to that student like many people will say, "Eh, she doesn't know. I know. I've been here." But I'm glad I listened, because the experience was wild. Thank you.