Night owl no more

I have always been a night owl, I have been doing night shifts for the last 6-7 years.. I am ok with them, they can be exhausting, but oh well...

One day a colleague of mine asked me to cover a morning shift for him due to a family emergency, and i accepted. being a night owl, I couldn't sleep at all before the shift and went to work after a short and shitty 3 hrs sleep.

Shift started as expected, busy but manageable... till the last hour towards the end (the longest part of the shift).. I was exhausted, dying for my bed and could not wait to get home.... until...

CODE BLUE RADIOLOGY

CODE BLUE RADIOLOGY

I sighed, thought to myself- either an allergic reaction to contrast and radiologists are calling for a code blue to summon ED folk to go and help.. or a relative of a patient had fainted after hearing some bad news... either way, I was not riled up.. but kept jogging to radiology...

then I saw him.. a person on the floor, getting chest compressions.. and in SCRUBS!

THIS IS A FUCKING STAFF MEMBER, ON THE FUCKING FLOOR, IN FUCKING CARDIAC ARREST!

I started yelling, "Alright everyone, ED Consultant here, I am the team leader" and started quickly assigning roles to people doing different things, maintaining an airway, doing compressions, obtaining IVs, getting the defib machine (machine that shocks your heart).. and we continued CPR...

WE HAVE A PULSE DOC!

Yes! let's put this man on a stretcher and go to ED... and off we ran..

ECG after ROSC showed concerning changes, I called cardiology who took him up to cath and after several days discovered that he had an anomaly in his heart that would make it prone to stopping without any warning signs (Brugada Syndrome). He later got discharged after getting his own ICD (or implanted shocking machine to shock him back to life if needed).

after several months I see him at work, say hello, and he says hello back.. not knowing that it was I that treated him that day.. I am ok with that.. I find it awkward to walk up to people and say I saved their lives. I am not a dick.

carrying that with me feels good..