human being

My friend Chuck loves to say human being. He doesn't say people, guy, girl, etc when referring to a mammal with a special kind of intelligence and soul. No, he calls them by human being. I love it. It seems so impersonal and yet coming from him, it's so appropriate. Well, most of the time.

It came to mind last night at about 10pm when this older guy was brought in by ambulance to work. He would be my patient for the rest of the night- I got off at 3am. When he first came in he was having a really tough time breathing and it was fairly serious. There were tons of us gathered around, getting IV access, an ECG, getting him on BiPAP (a machine to help him breathe), etc. The doctor was calling out orders. It was a little chaotic. Welcome to the Emergency Department. What I think is easy to forget is that we're doing all of what we're doing for a human being. It's a job, yes. You get into this survival mode where you want to do everything quickly and efficiently so that the person makes it. But still, you have to talk to them, reassure them, and remember that they're the one who's being maneuvered like a marionette puppet. Kinda scary not to have any idea what all of these people are doing.

A new friend of mine made a profound statement this week. She was talking about how we as a society are lacking in the ability to acknowledge each other. How you can stand in line at the grocery store or sit next to someone on the bus or watch a janitor clean up a mess you helped to contribute to but never acknowledge that person. What a shame. It makes all of the difference in the world.

So last night with my patient, I really tried to talk to him, even though he was having a difficult time talking back to me and sometimes one-sided conversations are tough for me. I really hope it helped him to understand what he was going through and how he was doing. I need to remember that we're all human beings with a need for acknowledgement, to be communicated with, and to have our needs recognized.