Perspective- ER nurse in Iraq

[peejman]

I received this via email from my sister. She received from a friend, who is the author's aunt. Thought I'd share...

dont read this if you are already sad, just save it for later. i'm thinking this will make you sadder.

i wrote this in my journal, and i decided to share.

"I put 2 soldiers in body bags today. Pray for their families.

I hope I never have to do that again.â€

An email I sent to my family.

There was an overhead announcement across the base: all medical personnel were to report into the hospital immediately.

My roommate (also a nurse) and I were already getting ready to head in for our usual shift. We made it to the ER quickly.

The ER was chaos. There were 12 trauma patients all involved in the same firefight. Patients and screaming. Staff shouting orders. X-rays. Morphine. Gauze. Blood dripping on the floors. People everywhere. And then, above all the noise, you hear them call for the chaplain. “Chaplain! We need the chaplain!â€

That’s never something you want to hear shouted urgently in an ER.

I was brought to help in the Expectant Room. “Expectant†because your injuries are not survivable. You are expected to die.

Or in this case, you’re already dead.

I walked into the room and two bodies were placed on litters covered with military green wool blankets. We pulled back the blankets, cut off the blood-stained uniforms. We took off the combat boots. We collected all of their belongings to be sent home. One of them was wearing a wedding ring.

I wondered what they had been thinking when they laced up their boots that morning. Probably not that it was the last time they would put them on. Probably not that it would be a medic solemnly peeling them off of their pulseless feet later that day.

We rolled one onto his side to slide the shroud beneath him. Blood poured from the gunshot wound on his neck onto my pants and boots. His eyes were glassy blue, half-open.

They were still warm. Aside from their obvious injuries, they looked as if they should sit up at any moment and ask us why we all looked so somber. Ask us if they could step outside for a smoke. They looked healthy. They looked young. They looked like they were sleeping.

They looked like they died violently.

I wanted to vomit violently. It’s utterly horrifying. There are no words. There is no way to describe what it’s like to stand in a room like that. To put that wedding ring on top of a bloody pile of clothing. To zip up into a black gleaming bag legs that will never run again, arms that will never hug again, a face that will never again see the sun.

Never see the tears spilling from my eyes.

It’s bone-chillingly senseless.

Patients from the ER were being stabilized and filitered into the ward and the ICU so I went to help there. I first went to a patient with a gunshot wound on his right foot, Danny. He was joking with me and seemed stable, so I left to get him some clothes (they cut all his off in the ER) and when I came back he was in tears.

I held him and cried with him.

He told me how they had been on break. They arranged their tactical vehicles into a circle, guns facing outward. They sat then in their circle, most soldiers sleeping. Some were eating. Danny was reading a book.

A man wearing the Iraqi Army uniform approached. “We weren’t thinking anything of it,†Danny told me. The American Army is working closely with the Iraqi Army; we are supposedly on the same team now. So a member of the Iraqi Army would be viewed as a “friendlyâ€.

The man opened fire and sprayed bullets at the group of sleeping Americans.

“I lost my best friend,†he told me. His eyes were bloodshot. Tears and blood streaked his face. “I lost my best friend today.â€

We held a ceremony for our fallen soldiers. Medics, doctors, nurses, techs, surgeons, colonels, generals, everyone was there. Some of the most brilliant minds and the most skilled hands were there. We cast off our bloody gloves and we stood at attention as the nation’s flag was draped over the heroes’ bodies. We saluted as they passed through the ER doors and out to the helicopter pad to start their last journey home. They left with dignity. They left as we cried for them.

Some things need to be cried over.

Some things should have never had the chance to occur.

I hope I never have to do that again. =============

[Guest Glock23ForMe]

God Bless All our Troops and Their Families.