Enlightened Moment

My first encounter with trauma came early in my student nursing rotation. I was in the emergency room when a big rig truck driver was brought in by ambulance. His truck ran off the road into a large tree.

He’d fractured his femur and sustained facial trauma. There was frank bleeding from his nose.

Strapped on a backboard he yelled “I’m drowning! I’M DROWNING!” and probably was. The blood from his nose ran down his throat and he wasn’t able to breathe through his nose.

Despite our frequent suctioning, the blood would accumulate and he’d spit blood clots that stuck to the ceiling. If they didn’t reach the ceiling they would rain back down onto the staff around him.

After slight sedation he was intubated. The tube prevented blood from going into his lungs. It was also easier to suction him. I stayed longer than my scheduled class because they needed help. I was able to free others to do things that needed done. Shortly after we stabilized him, he was sent by air ambulance to a hospital for higher level of care.

Even though I wasn’t close to his bed, blood was on my head, shoulders, and uniform. I washed my hands and arms at a sink, but I still had blood clots on my uniform and in my hair when I left. I took a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to the dormitory to soak the blood from my uniform. Back at the dorm, I grabbed soap and shampoo to take shower. First soaked my uniform in a sink and work the blood out of my white top, then soaked my pants even though they were dark blue. I showered to remove blood out of my hair. Large clots of blood had dried, matted into my hair. I managed to pull a few small clots loose along with some of my hair. Things weren’t going very well. I tried scrubbing harder with shampoo and water with limited success. They weren’t budging. I was tired and just wanted to be clean and get to bed.

A light bulb came on, peroxide! It worked on my uniform. It should work on these clots too.”

I snatched the peroxide and poured some on the clots, then shampoo and scrubbed. After a few seconds, I rinsed and watched as clots circled the drain and disappeared.

“Great! It‘s really working. The clots are coming loose.” I felt like dancing, but I was too tired.

After repeating about three times, my hair was clot-free. I collected my uniform and hung it over a chair back and crawled into bed.

The next day as I walked to class, another student nurse said, “You’re hair looks really red in the sun today.”

OOPS! It was the peroxide. I had unintentionally lightened my hair.