Elephants and Wedding Gowns

I was supervising on an afternoon shift when I heard an overhead page “Blue alert” on our obstetric unit. An arrest on OB had not happened to me before. I hurried to the unit. The patient was a middle aged woman who’d delivered an infant girl earlier. The woman’s heart had stopped. When I arrived CPR was already in progress and I took over doing chest compressions to keep the woman alive. Apparently the stress of labor and delivery was too much for her and she’d had a heart attack. With compressions, support of her breathing, and medications we were able to get her heart going again. She was transferred to our coronary care unit for recovery. I checked on her the next evening and introduced myself as a nurse who’d done compressions on her chest when she arrested downstairs in the O.B. unit the day before.

She said, “So, you’re the elephant who sat on my chest.” I laughed at her description and we talked a bit more before I left her room. I walked into the nursing station and her nurse said, “I heard what she said to you and just wanted to show you something.” She opened the chart and pointed to what she had written while charting earlier. “Patient states ‘It feels as though an elephant sat on my chest.’” I chuckled and left the unit feeling good that the woman was alive because "an elephant” had done its job.

Many years later a woman stopped me in the hospital hallwayl. She was with a beautiful teen aged girl. The woman turned to the girl and introduced me as “the elephant who sat on my chest when you were born.” Then she turned to me and said, “She’s graduating high school this year.”

I was awestruck. I am sure that my mouth was hanging open. This young lady was graduating this year and her mom was going to be around to see her. It was a great feeling to know that I’d had a part in keeping her mother alive to see this milestone in the girl’s life.

But the story doesn’t end there. A few years later, I heard my name being called, turned, and there was the same lady and her daughter.

“We’re here for some blood tests.” She said. “My daughter’s getting married this month.” She broke into a wide smile.

            I didn’t know what to say other than “Congratulations!” Such a feeling of wonderment and accomplishment flowed over me. Standing there in front of me was this beautiful young woman and her mother was still alive and able to see her walk down the aisle. What a rush of good feelings engulfed me.