Wrong

In the wake of one of the most horrific accidents and loss of young life Canada and the world has seen, I couldn’t stop myself from wondering how the Emergency Disaster Management Teams coped with such a large mass casualty event.

Don’t take this the wrong way. As a woman, mother and not wearing my “nurse cap”, I felt such utter horror at the fact that so many young lives had been snuffed out in the blink of an eye. Nauseating heart-pounding disbelief was what occurred first when I heard the news.

Then the nurse took over.  While sounding callous, hard and to some unfeeling, I put myself in the shoes of those who would have been waiting in the various ED’s in the vicinity of this Code Orange. The sheer overwhelming task of the first responders to sift through the wreckage, sort through the casualties and load to a destination must have been a herculean effort on so many levels.

Getting that barrage of ambulance dispatches would have set the dedicated group of nurses, doctors and extended service personnel at the hospital into a flurry of activity to prepare. And then they came.

I read an article that had a doctor’s account of what transpired. I felt somewhere between helpless and wanting to have been a part of it. Is that wrong?? Does anyone really want to witness the chaos and destruction, disbelief and agony….

The woman and mother didn’t want to be there for obvious reasons…..the nurse wanted to jump in and help, sort and stabilize, treat and load, but most of all, provide comfort. I imagine the comforting part, in such a small close knit community, will continue on for a very long time to come.

Emergency nursing is exciting, challenging and so very difficult at times.

It’s not wrong to want to be there. It’s what we spend years training for and expecting.

The root of that “want” is caring. Caring is never wrong.

#prayingforhumboldt