Day 3 The Stretcher Lens

When I think about all the patients and their loved ones that I have worked with over the years, I know most of them don't remember me nor I them.  But I do know that I gave a little piece of myself to each of them and they to me . . .  


~Donna Wilk Cardillo~


A Daybook for Beginning Nurses

An ER stretcher sits empty. A trauma bay gapes open. 

If this stretcher could talk, what tales would it tell?

It would tell a tale of a grandma who was laying on it, short of breath as fluids filled her lungs. Wide-eyed, she gasped for air. It would tell a tale of a young man who, desperately aggrieved about life, took his own by hanging himself.

It would tell a tale of the nurses, ED aides, and doctors who, with expertise, save lives and change lives everyday. It would tell a tale of how, with compassion and care, they touch lives like angels.

What stories would it tell if it could speak?

It would tell of a teenager who was rushed in by paramedics with advanced life support in progress. Every effort is exhausted but the young life energy is no longer there. It would tell of the grief of a father, of the empathetic hug from the doctor, of the nurses' tears . . .

If this stretcher could say what it has seen, what would it be?

It would say that life and death happens in and around it. It would say that people have a great capacity to despair, to be cruel, to be angry, to self-destruct; 

but 

it would also say that people have an equally great capacity to empathize, to love, to care, to fight for life.

Today, this stretcher sits empty. But, oh, the tales it could tell . . . Quietly, it sits . . . waiting for the next story.

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I dedicate this to all the nurses, the ED aides, and the doctors with whom I have worked with in the past few months. Thank you for your kindness and your friendship. I appreciate what you do everyday.