WOW!!! Crazy day

[statesidela]

Had a crazy day at dialysis today I thought she was just sleeping...sigh...an old lady at clinic died today and I saw the whole thing what a mind trip.....the work on her for 10 mins then an ambulance came they worked on her for another 10 - 15 mins no response it was an awful thing to see for me...I have never seen someone die never seen a dead body an never want to see this again...anyway I was curious to see if any other dailysis folk have had seen this happen...does it play on your mind?

I have so much more to say about it I think but the words won't come out at the moment. Bottle of wine might do the trick

Let me know ur experiences please

[Riki]

I haven't seen it happen, but I know that it does happen sometimes..

[doing.my.best]

I am sorry you had to see that. It is always a daunting feeling that tends to linger. And it doesn't get easier no matter how many times you've seen it. Don't let it get to you too much though.

You said it was an old lady and it seems like it was a peaceful death, which is something that we all wish for ourselves when the time comes.

[thegrammalady]

 

[rsudock]

the first week at my new unit after the hospital, i met and became friends with this kind elderly lady. after the weekend i noticed i hadn't seen her mon or wed i asked the nurse where she was and she died in her sleep after going to dinner and a movie with her hubby last friday...i cried the rest of the treatment...

[boswife]

That would have to be a sad one.  And you couldnt even get up and leave..   One of my friends at our center passed after going home from treatment, but it was her heart that was very weak. I was so sad, and still occasionally talk with her hubby.. she was a lovely lady with a lot of spunk.  It's not easy to loose someone 

[KICKSTART]

Did they not put screens around? If not thats disgusting. If a person goes beyond crashing they bring the screens out for dignity and privacy. I am sorry you had to see this.

[Riki]

they may not have had time, if it was quick

[gothiclovemonkey]

Im sorry u had to see that.
I was "lucky" one day that i had skipped a treatment, one gentlemen at dialysis crashed hard, they eventually did bring him back and got him into the hospital, but he was in a coma, and his wife dicided it was time. Also another time, I wasnt there, it wasnt my day, a gentleman choked to death on a PB sammich....

Death is a part of life, its the only thing that is certain. as my quote says, Imagine how important death must be to have a prerequisite such as life. I assume we have these trials that we do for a reason, and in some cases make us stronger. I know that I have changed my outlook on so many things since becoming a dialysis patient, since becoming a single mother, since becoming an adult, even though im still very silly and immature

At least it sounds she went peacefully, which is something we can all hope for And perhaps she is no longer suffering...
 

[del]

Hubby was sitting beside a man he had a good friendship with one day at dialysis.  He was talking to Hubby and just passed out- hubby yelled for the nurse and they came worked on him and revived him after about 15 minutes.  he lived for about 2 months after that.  We stayed with him and his wife one Friday night (he called and wanted us to come to his house and stay because we were supposed to ave a snow storm) He rode to dialysis with us saturday morning and went hubby went back for dialysis Tuesday morning one of the nurses puled him aside and told him Jack had died about 5 o'clock that morning.  Was an awful treatment that day!!  There were several during the time hubby spent in center that passed away.  He will always remember the day jack died next to him and they revived him.  He was really shaken up that day!!

[greg10]

Had a crazy day at dialysis today I thought she was just sleeping...sigh...an old lady at clinic died today and I saw the whole thing ..
Let me know ur experiences please

Welcome to the forum SSla.  I don't know how it is in Scotland, but the in-center dialysis system in the US is broken as this quote from the December issue of Atlantic Magazine showed:
"Every year, more than 100,000 Americans start dialysis. One in four of them will die within 12 months—a fatality rate that is one of the worst in the industrialized world" - http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=20853.msg346668#msg346668

Unfortunately the probability is quite high that you will see something like this in-center for the average dialysis patient.  We were in-center for about 4 months and we saw one case very similar to what you described.  The problem is that the system is stacked against you as a nascent dialysis patient.  It seems like the nephrologist, the nurse, the tech, the dialysis center, the drug companies are all in some way working, whether deliberate or not, against the patient.  About the only person not working against us in our time in-center was I thought the receptionist; and I am not so sure now looking back because she was also doing referrals on behalf of the dialysis center.

[casper2636]

Our own immortality is a horrible thing to look at, especially when you are surrounded by it every day. Over the last three months the people who have at in the chair next to me (3 of them) have died. They were my friends and it is hard to contemplate their losses. All we can do is to try our best to stay as healthy as possible and show the people around us all the kindness and love we can muster.

[RightSide]

an old lady at clinic died today and I saw the whole thing what a mind trip.....the work on her for 10 mins then an ambulance came they worked on her for another 10 - 15 mins no response it was an awful thing to see for me...I have never seen someone die never seen a dead body an never want to see this again...anyway I was curious to see if any other dailysis folk have had seen this happen...does it play on your mind?

Yep, a few weeks ago at my dialysis center, an elderly male patient not too far from my chair "coded" (that means he went into cardiac arrest) as I looked on--and I don't believe they were able to bring him back.  The sequence of events was similar to what you saw.

But I did not know him.

I did know another gentleman patient, who had both cancer and kidney failure.  Since I started dialysis there, we had gotten to know each other and we liked each other.  He died about 7 months ago.  And there was another patient, who had a heart transplant.  He disappeared recently, and I think he's gone too.

Let's face it, our dialysis community has a rather rapid rate of turnover.  Look at this very forum here, IHD:  The guy who started it is gone.  The lady who was the Number 1 administrator of IHD is gone.  (You can find tributes to them and to many others in the "Tributes" section of IHD.)

Just like soldiers going into combat against a ruthless enemy, we have to try not to dwell on it.  Just go about our lives, do our duties, and remember all the things we've got going for us to get us through.

[Stoday]

Reading this thread, you can easily get depressed.

A pessimistic view would be that as I'm 70, statistically I have only 4½ years left instead of 15 for a man in normal health.

Optimistically, two generations ago I would have been dead by 70, but now I have 4½ years extra. 

[galvo]

And, practically, make sure you enjoy them.

[Jean]

A good lesson for all of us to remember. Take one day at a time and enjoy it.

[RightSide]

I just posted a news article on sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) to the "News" section of IHD.

The incidence of SCA is known to be some 30 times greater for hemodialysis patients than for those who don't have kidney disease.  And the survival rate is low.

It appears that for us hemodialysis patients, the incidence of SCA is not well correlated with traditional measures of cardiovascular disease like atherosclerosis and arrythmia.  I attended a podcast with a nephrologist who said that many hemodialysis patients with no prior history of cardiovascular disease or heart disease, who eat right and exercise regularly, are still falling victim to SCA. 

Evidently it's something about the hemodialysis process itself that predisposes us to SCA.  Suspicion is now falling on the low calcium level in the dialysate.  The calcium level is lowered to prevent complications like calcification of the soft tissues. But it may predispose us to SCA, another example of the perpetual tightrope we hemodialysis patients must constantly walk.

[sullidog]

I've heard patients getting revived but since I am blind I can't see it happeneding

[Riki]

I think one of the patients who comes to my unit may have died the other day.  They were late getting me on, because they were understaffed and my fistula didn't seem to want to cooperate, so I was there later than usual.  Before we went in, this fellow was sitting with us in the waiting room, chatting and laughing with the rest of us.  At the end of the night, I was the only one left in the main room, that has the nurses desk, and Fellow was  in the other room.  Since I was closer to them, I could hear the nurses talking.  First they said that he was weak, and his bp was low.  Then someone said that he was bleeding profusely and unresponsive.  They called 911.  From what I understand, he was bleeding from an incision.  When we were leaving, we were behind the ambulance, and it pulled over before it got out of the parking lot. Mom and I didn't take that as a good sign.  That was Wednesday.  He wasn't there Friday, and I didn't have the heart to ask the nurses how he was.  I've been there almost 2 years now, and in that time, not including this fellow, because it's not confirmed, there are 5 that I know have died.  There could be more that I just wasn't told about