I went back to Betty's home and this is what happened next...
I drove back to Betty’s home about an hour later and there was a car in the driveway. “Good,” I said to myself “someone is here.” As I started to get out of the car these precious two elderly women came running over to my car and one of the lady’s screams, “come quickly I think Betty is gone.” Gone? Where? I am thinking to myself. One grabs my hand and the other grabs my arm and pulls me towards the door.
When we got to the bathroom, and they sort of just threw me into the room. I just stared for a moment not believing what I was looking at. There was Betty sitting slumped over on the toilet. Her head was down and her arms were at her sides. There was something dripping from her nose and it was frozen in midair. I will leave that up to your own imagination.
“Is she gone” one of the ladies asked. I slowly moved towards her and I touch her shoulder and she fell to the floor. Not only was she gone but rigor had set in.
I turned to these two shaking women and asked who they were, “we’re Betty’s sisters. Oh, my is she really gone?” I looked at Betty curled up on the floor and then at these two ladies. “Yes, I’m sorry she is gone.” All of a sudden one of them starts screaming. “Oh my God, oh my God. I just had two stents put in and I am having chest pain!” I was thrown back into reality when I heard this. I helped her to the living room and told her that I was going to call 911 for her and she agreed.
I called 911 and explained to them the situation and the dispatcher just says, “you’re kidding, right?” “No! Please send me some help!
“On the way” he states. The next thing I hear is the fire engines, the ambulance, and the police cars pulling into the driveway. The EMT’s headed towards the living room when they saw me, as they passed the body on the bathroom floor. Half of them came to me and the other half went to the bathroom to see Betty.
“What’s going on,” one of them said to me as they began to dig out their equipment for assessment. “Well, you saw Betty as you passed the bathroom and these are her sisters. One of them states she just had stents place and is now having chest pain.” They all just looked at me; I saw the sympathy in their eyes, but I also saw that they wanted to laugh at the same time. Two EMT’s started to assess Betty’s sister as the police and firemen went into the bathroom to check out Betty again.
All kinds of details were running through my head, “Crap, they didn’t teach this in orientation, or what the hell will I do next.” Call my manager! That’s what I am going to do she will help me through this. I excused myself from the scene and went into the kitchen to make a phone call to the office. I needed my boss and I needed her now. She was not there; she just stepped out for a moment.
“What’s up?” My unit coordinator says to me. I gave her a brief description of what was going on and the first thing she says is “Oh God let me get someone to help you.” Soon I found myself speaking with one of the managers from another team and I explain to her what’s going on and she says, “you are kidding, right?” as she starts to laugh. “No, I am not!”
I must have yelled or something like that because she stopped laughing and asked, “What can I do for you, are you okay?” I asked her what do I do now. She states that the fire department will pronounce Betty but I would have to call the Doctor, and he will call the state examiner and then the examiner will call the funeral home.
It all sounded so simple. When I went back into the living room they were getting ready to pull out. “She doesn’t want to go to the ER, and it’s against medical advice,” the EMT says, they then pronounce Betty and left.
I informed the sisters of what we had to do. They were both crying at this point, and I felt so bad, but I just wanted to get out of that house. I called the Doctor and told him what happen and he told me he would call the state medical examiner. It didn’t take long for the examiner to call me back to tell me that he has waived his exam and the funeral home would be there soon. I was very grateful for that. Then as I was getting off the phone with him the same sister clutches at her chest and yells “Oh God I am having more chest pain.
“This just isn’t my day,” I thought to myself. I called back the manager and asked what to do and she says to me “well Marilyn, let’s take care of the living first” and she laughed at me again. All I could say was “not funny”
I called the fire department back and ask them to come back. When they returned they told the sister that she would have to go with them now because it was their second trip. I advised her to go and take care of herself there was nothing here left for her to do. In fact, I told both of them to go. The funeral home showed up a moment later. It was the end of a very long day.
I went back to the office to write my charts and reports. My manager was there and she wanted to know everything. I sat in her office for a while telling her the story, and not leaving any details out. I asked her “do you think I could have done anything differently to change the circumstances of today?”
“No, no one could have changed it or even predicted it. Marilyn, you will learn that no matter what you do you can’t change fate and you can’t change people.” She said this so eloquently that I knew I would never forget it. We had a good laugh believe it or not and she referred to the entire experience as “baptism by fire.”
As I was about to leave her office she says, “By the way was she wearing a blue bathrobe? That’s what she was wearing on Sunday I would hate to think I was the last to see her.” We both chuckled as I lied to her, “No she wasn’t wearing a blue bathrobe.”
Life goes on, and it always will, whether I am a nurse or a writer. Life stops for no one. Sometimes we just have to take a different ride and with any luck, one will find that ride just as enjoyable as the last.
