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Saturday, October 29, 2011

No Sleeping Dogs Allowed


I spent much of yesterday in a hospital waiting room as a family member had surgery.  (Everything went fine.)  Periodically the desk staff would call a family name for someone to go up and take a call from the OR with an update on their patient.  There was a young woman in the waiting room who fell sound asleep, sitting up with her feet up and head slumped down.  A hospital staffer tried to wake her for several minutes and finally got her roused enough to take a call.  Soon, the girl was back asleep.  An hour or so later, a staffer tried again to wake her.  I've never seen anyone sleep this soundly.  The general feeling was that either she was drugged or something was wrong.  This second staffer tried for about five minutes to wake the girl.  Finally we heard "Code Blue, main lobby."  Doctors, residents, nurses, and technicians came rushing into the lobby from all sides.  A gurney was brought in.  It was a little like a TV show.  About that time, the staff roused the girl.  The hospital staff left the lobby rather sheepishly, and the young woman apparently heard the news about her patient and then walked outside for some fresh air.  My party left for lunch, returned, and saw the girl again slumped over in a dead sleep.  She did not move for at least an hour.  Eventually she woke of her own accord, just in time to go pick up her patient.  It was a kind of fascinating tableau.  Was she on drugs?  Was she really exhausted from being up with a sick person for days?  Some people snickered the first time she would not wake up.  Others were concerned.  It was one of those cases when you imagine different possibilities, but never know the truth.  I just hope she and her patient made it home safely and are both recovering from whatever ailed them.

4 comments:

  1. Goodness me..what an eventfull day.Im glad your relative is fine.Hope you have a good weekend

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  2. Oh my...well I'm glad your family member is okay. Hmm...I wonder, was she a teenager? I could sleep like a brick back then. And last night I woke up 20 times, sigh...But, I bet it very well could have been staying up all night taking care of a sick person.

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  3. I'm glad everything is ok with your family member. That was odd! My guess is she's probably very tired and I hope she made it home ok too!

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  4. What a day! Nice to hear everyone is fine. Sounds like the young lady passed out from not sleeping.

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