Had my first call in the ICU last night....started off pretty busy with a code blue (basically when a pt stops breathing or heart stops). We got the lady stabilized enough to go emergently to the OR since we thought she was bleeding into her belly...the frustrating thing was that one of the daughters refused to give consent for the surgery until her pastor got to the hospital despite warnings of impending death, according to the surgery resident. They waited in the OR for 2 hours! Supposedly the pastor was in the middle of a sermon or something. By that time, the patient's blood pressure had fallen way low, so the surgeon and anesthesiologist said it's too late for surgery. So the daughter said it's all in God's hands. My senior resident and I didn't find out about all this until the patient was being put back in the ICU.

Later this morning, all the labs were coming back extrememly abnormal...basically she was dying. It was really sad, cuz the patient had a decent chance if things weren't delayed. And as a fellow believer, I keep thinking that had I known what was happening immediately, maybe I could have sat down with the family and spoke to them, empathized with their faith, and explained the medical circumstances in a way they could understand (they didn't seem very educated).

But I guess, in the end, God makes things happen the way they do for a reason. It'll be sad walking into the ICU tomorrow...I know that patient won't be there...unless if there was a miracle beyond reason.