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Twenty-fourth Job of Bob - Nursing Assistant - Nursing Home Part III - Sternal Rub really works (xiphiod process)
This entry was posted on 6/3/2010 1:32 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
I was talking the other day to someone at work about my nursing home experiences and two popped into my head I had nowadays almost forgotten but once talked about quite often. One incident involved an old fellow we will call Judge. The Judge was the victim of a stroke. He had lost many of his abilities like talking and swallowing appropriately. Strokes do the damnist things to people. One day the nutritonist was gathering people to put into the day room and sit them down for dinner. The nutritionist had to do things like this to justify her existence. The candidates for an actual sitdown dinner where few in a nursing home that took on the worst case patients. Anyway, she rounded up a few old hapless patients. I was assigned to help her.
With patients sitting around the table, we started dishing up the plates. Old Judge tore into his hot beef and potatoes with a vengeance. Of, course he did not chew or swallow properly. He was also subject to grab the plate of the next person over as well. His inappropriate swallowing agitated his Vagus nerve in his neck. The Vagus nerve is a nerve which causes problems with heart beat and such. To make a long story shorter, Ol' Judge began to die at the table.
Being an emergency medical technician, I had heard of the "sternal rub" as a technique to jolt a person out of several medical dilemmas, one being...death. There is a small bone in the middle of the chest called the xiphoid process which when vigorously rubbed on will really hurt.
Ol' Judge had a do-not-resuscitate bracelet on. Many people opt for this when they are near the end of their lives. In other words, you can't start CPR on them or intervene with aggressive life saving steps. The sternal rub is a gray area in the rule.
The nutritionist looked at me when I told her Judge was kicking the bucket and she said, "I ain't got time for someone to die today." By then Judge's head had landed in his mashed potatoes.
She grabbed Judge by the back of the neck and reached around and pounded the crap out of his sternum. Judge hesitated, woke up, coughed a bit, looked around, and began pounding down his potatoes and beef like nothing had ever happened. Unbelievable! All I could do was stand in awe.
Another old fellow I will call Righty, had lost just about every ability and was confined all day to an air bed which helped his circulation. He was a tiny fellow before he had lost weight at his age now in his nineties. All he could say was, "Aaaaa...boost me up."
So several times a day I would pass by his room, "Aaaaa...boost me up," and I would....boost him up to the pillow.
When ever life gets me down, especially at work, I will often say to someone...yah, you guessed it, "Aaaaa...boost me up!"
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan
Marine Lance Corporal Nicholas R. Anderson, 21, of Sauk City, Wisconsin, died March 13, 2006, in a non-hostile vehicle accident in Afghanistan. He was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Lance Corporal Anderson was killed when his Humvee accidentally rolled over in the Torkham District of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. The 2005 Senate Joint Resolution 78 noted Nicholas died as a result of wounds received while on patrol near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, during Operation Enduring Freedom. Anderson had originally enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2002, a year before graduating from Sauk Prairie High School in 2003. He then joined the Marine Corps in January 2005, serving in Hawaii. The Resolution noted Nicholas was a Fat Boy Harley Davidson rider and enjoyed trips to Devils Lake, Wisconsin Dells, and the Merrimac Ferry. Anderson had worked at McFarlanes’, and also worked for Monona Fire and Sprinkler, and was a member of VFW Post 7694. According to iraq.pigstye.net, a Website dedicated to Iraq war casualties, Lance Corporal Anderson had been riding in the gun turret of the vehicle when it tipped over; Anderson died in a helicopter on the way to the hospital. His home community which is along the Wisconsin River, immediately displayed all the American flags normally reserved for holiday events. At the time of his death, Lance Corporal Anderson was survived by his mother Barb Anderson; father Jim Anderson; stepmother Cindy Anderson, a sister Jessica Yanke; stepsisters Kiersten, Elin, and Kia Carlson; best friend and cousin Aaron Haas; special friend Amanda Kohlman; and friend James Schulenberg. Nicholas Anderson was the 5th Wisconsin military service person killed in Afghanistan since the fall of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
96,661 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,500 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,402 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1087 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
317 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
689 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,822 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
5,917 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
19 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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