- to a certain degree, yes, especially if it is a simple case. dvt can cause pulmonary embolism so it can be explained. but most cases are not simple. the patient you described probably has other ailments influencing his major condition. in my experience, a confluence of bad factors usually kills the patient. medicine can safely claim credit to the explanation part whether the patient survived or not; it cannot always say it saved the day because for all its merits, it remains an imperfect science.

“can we really say we knew what to do and we did it well, thus preventing death?”

- not all the time. as i said it remains an imperfect science. we discover new things as we go along.

“…or can we really blame stupid or slow doctors and nurses, lack of modern technology, lousy lab technicians for losing a loved a one?”

- sometimes, yes. technical errors can kill. wrong dosages. wrong medication given. leaving a surgical scissors inside the patient. sleepy doctors making bad decisions. fast iv instead of slow iv.

Consider a health-conscious person who never smokes, eats the right food, exercises often, and has laboratory exam values any doctor will be happy about. He is as healthy as the finest definition of what healthy is. But what happens? While crossing the road, he gets hit by a speeding car, and dies immediately.

What do you call that? Is that because he was negligent in looking first before crossing the street, or is that because it was his time already to die?

A friend priest insists the answer is the latter, but my personal belief is that there is always an explanation why things happen. The man is religiously strict when it comes to obvious health matters, but I think he was not paying attention to basic safety precautions when crossing the street. Simple matter, but fatal in the end. Still, there was an explanation.

Of course, I can be wrong. But that is my opinion. Solomon says there is a time to die. For me that means some sort of guide post and not a fate matter that determines our future whether we like it or not. Free will exists and we can choose what we want to happen in this life. Our inability to have definite answers to some questions should not push us to be impatient enough to believe that the flow of things have been preordained. The answers are there somehow. We should be patient enough to wait and discover them.

My dos sentimos. Forgive me if it was lengthy.

Happy Easter, May!

Every single one of your thoughts has crossed my mind at one time or another. The CCU patient who wants her husband at 0300 and wants him NOW and then codes within the hour…(we got the husband, thank goodness).

Hmmm…I feel a blog post inspiration coming on….

I believe there is ‘a time’ for my death and that the clock was set at my birth, in my physiology, as Moof says. I’ve always felt a strong sense of responsibility for taking as good care of myself as possible — mentally, physically, spiritually — so that whatever opportunities or difficulties come I can make the most of them, to my benefit and to others’. To me, there is great hope in this perspective because each day is another chance to exercise my power to order my thoughts and to rediscover what is most valuable to me.

Friday was the first time in my life that I have seen someone after they had died. The nursing home where I was doing my clinical had lost one of its residents during the night, and we were “fortunate” to have the “learning opportunity” to be involved in the after care. Unfortunately, over-emotional me was a blubbering idiot, so was pretty much useless.

I know this is something to get used to, as you and others have stated, it becomes very common in nursing practice, but a difficult task, nonetheless, trying to learn to accept it…

I am trying to get up the nerve to blog about my experience and thoughts soon, but I’m not ready yet - still trying to get the images out of my head!! Makes me respect all of you seasoned nurses so much more.

Personally I prefer questions over answers.

i am guilty of using “it was just there time” or ” there is a reason for this/everything”. I am also guilty of having a weak faith in God, although to be honest, I never let my patients know that. I have days were i really believe i, and days that I just say it.

It’s not a bad answer when you think about it: There may be such a thing as “your time” — but that’s in God’s hands, not ours — and we get to rage, rage against the dying of the light right up until the decision is taken out of our hands.

And I sure wouldn’t want to tempt fate on the theory that it’s not yet “my time!”

Interesting read.