In memory...J.C. 1997-1999

[vdansk]

I've been thinking a lot about the only child from my practice I've ever lost. He was a healthy, sturdy, breast-fed 13 month old who I'd seen a few weeks earlier. After 11 years, I still remember the heft of him in my arms the last time I saw him, for his one year check-up, a few weeks before he died.

I was in room 3 in our ER with pneumonia, 6 months pregnant with Leah, hooked up to an IV and O2, when the triage nurse rushed him into Trauma 2 and called a doctor stat. I tried to get up, and my doctor, who was seeing me at the time, waved me down and ran off and took over. They did everything right, and by the time I was wheeled by his room on my way upstairs, he was being life-flighted to the city. Despite strict orders from my doctor to the contrary, someone slipped to me that evening that he'd died. Overwhelming septic shock from strep pneumo. He'd been ill less than 12 hours when he died.

A vaccine was developed against strep pneumo a couple of years later. I never use new vaccines, new drugs when they first come out. I made an exception for this one.

Monday I was back in the same ER, back in room 3, back on an IV and O2 for the first time in 11 years. If he had lived, he'd be twelve now, in sixth grade, a year above Leah.

Comments

[xanath.livejournal.com]

That breaks my heart, especially to think that it was only two years. Such a short period of time, and yet it would have made all the difference to his parents.

I hope you're feeling better, Hope. ::hugs::

[tenwii.livejournal.com]

It is amazing what memories can give you, both joyful and painful. I am glad you remember him so vividly, though -- it surely affected the way you practice medicine and the way you think of people/time/life on the whole as well.

Much metta,
J