No one is asking for perfect. If one cannot convey even a modicum of compassion when breaking the worst news a human being can hear, then the job should be given to someone who can.
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You do not know what’s going on that person’s life either. Have some compassion for her too.
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Wow, you weren’t even there to witness the behavior, didn’t work with her on the daily, but do go on…
Some people behave badly because they just aren’t nice people.
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Yeah, there bad doctors everywhere, there are bad nurses everywhere, yesterday on the news, one traveling nurse had 13 car wrecks in her past, she just killed 6-7 people in a big car crash recently. You think people in this profession should have more compassion, no.
Human are imperfect.
A day or so back I clicked on a link to a YouTube helicopter video in a news report. Some LA TV stations have helicopters to cover car chases, fires, etc. I thought it was going to be an aerial view of the house after this accident but instead it showed her being rushed on a stretcher to an ambulance and then sitting up. It’s horrible to think she was aware of what happened and that those were her last conscious moments.
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We don’t know for sure if she was really aware of what was transpiring. As said before, if she had a brain injury or was in a state of hypoxia, physical activity doesn’t necessarily indicate mental clarity.
When I was working at the trauma ICU, I was very green behind the ears. I arrived in the unit one night (graveyard shift) to find a dead patient lying on a gurney in my assigned area. Two young doctors saw me come in and waved me over. They told me the patient was deceased (true), but said I needed to listen closely to his heart to hear something that happens right after a person dies. I leaned over with my stethoscope to listen to his chest, and one of the docs suddenly pushed on the man’s abdomen. All of a sudden the deceased man sat full up with arms outstretched and groaned. It scared the holy crap out of me, and after I screamed, people came out of the woodwork where they had been hiding, all laughing at the gullible newbie. Someone finally explained this phenomenon to me, and it did ram home to me the concept that people can move and vocalize and do all sorts of things while having no conscious knowledge of it.
Yes, this was inappropriate, cruel, disrespectful, etc., but graveyard shift at a county hospital trauma unit where 99% of what goes on is tragic and horrifying and visually brutal brings out the best and worst in people. The stories I could tell…
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And she is gone. 
Someone apparently will get some of her organs.
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If you haven’t seen her performance in Wag The Dog, I highly recommend it.
RIP Anne.
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I’ve volunteered in ER (I’m trained as a combat medic, so I would volunteer there to get more experience in trauma treatment), and can attest to the widespread gallows humor. It’s a way to cope with constant exposure to stressful and emotionally demanding job.
If this behavior keeps them from burnout, and allows them to have more patience and treat patients and family with more compassion, I’m OK with it. I’ve seen some of the doctors and nurses who were the most cynical and were the most into black humor change when they had to treat patients and speak to families.
A good doctor or nurse does need to have a certain amount of disregard for bodies. It’s not easy cutting into a live body if you are constantly thinking “I’m cutting somebody’s leg”. Even stitching or going intravenous requires the ability to stop thinking about the body as something inviolate. Even something a simple as giving a shot - looking at a needle with is an inch and a half long and sticking it to somebody isn’t easy the first time (we learned to do it on ourselves).
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Giving IM injections always gave me the creeps! I hated it.
I would agree with you on gallows humor. HCW in high stress areas typically grasp at ways to cope with what they see and do. Lay people would likely be really really appalled at what goes on sometimes. But you CANNOT survive in that kind of environment if you don’t find a way to emotionally distance yourself from what’s happening. You cannot give good care to people in horrific situations if you are horrified and upset or traumatized.
I wasn’t as good at protecting myself as I needed to be, so I left trauma care and eventually ended up in cardiac ICU. Still was very intense, but less emotionally depleting to me than trauma.
Thanks for your insight.
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And thank you for the time that you put into trauma care. It’s not easy on anybody.
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I learned something today about the honor walk for organ donors . Glad Anne Heche got that and that she did have viable organs that could be donated at the end.
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