death

Yesterday one of my patients died. She had been there for awhile and she was DNR, so it wasn't a shock or anything. I don't know what she had honestly, but she had on an oxygen mask and her respirations were like 24, as if she were gasping for air every breath. The last time I saw her I was trying to get a set of vitals, but the machine couldn't pick up a temperature or blood pressure. I guess because she was just too cold from all the blood rushing to her core. After that, a bunch of nurses and PCTs went in the room, but I stayed outside because I didn't want to crowd the tiny room. A few minutes later at the nurses station they told me she was gone. I was kind of interested to see what I would have had to do, like clean the body and bring her down the morgue, but I left at 3, so I never got a chance. It was sad, but also happy because obviously she was quite uncomfortable. One unfortunate thing was that her son was flying in to see her, but he did not make it before she died.