RaceChic
02-12-04, 11:10 PM
:(
Some of you who know me know I am a critical care nurse. I used to work in an ICU at a large teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We specialize in post-transplant cases. These cases can be very rewarding, but also very challenging as well. Some of these patients can suffer from rejection of their transplanted organs as well as infections due to their immunocompromised state created to prevent them from rejecting their organs. Because of these complications, some of these patients can be in the ICU for a very long time, sometimes up to months at a time. When this occurs, they can become a whole different challenge to care for. They suffer from depression and poor motivation. These patients accept transplantation in hopes of trading an unmanageable disease for a more manageable disease. Even though these patients want a transplant for a second lease on life, when they hit complications, even the most motivated of spirits can suffer. This brings me to my friend, Yves.
He suffered from Cystic Fibrosis. At 20 years of age, he had his first double lung transplant. He sailed through the recovery phase and was home in a few weeks back in Timmins, some 8 hours north of Toronto. A month later he suffered acute rejection and was back in Toronto. It becomes a dilemma whether or not to give these patients a second transplant because of how ill they become during rejection and the reduced likelihood of success. Yves was a fighter and a warm, happy spirit, so the team went ahead. Sometimes having a fighting spirit is a better set of predictability of success than any statistic a doctor can offer. A donor became available and he had his second double lung transplant.
The second one took a lot more out of him than his first. He was in out ICU for about three months when I came in to care for him. He was depressed and very unmotivated. He had not been out of bed nor had he walked in that whole time. He was frail and weak. By the end of the fourth day that I cared for him, he took his first steps. It was very painful for him, because of the lack of use his muscles had had in the previous three months not including the time before that that he waited on a ventilator for lungs.
He became determined during those pivotal four days and left our unit three weeks later. I visited his bedside every day during that time. Nurses don't generally maintain friendships with their patients because of the emotional difficulty of impending loss, but if I had never maintained a friendship with this young man, it would have been only my loss.
Yves taught me what determination meant. He taught me the value of unconditional friendship. He also taught me that the friendships that are the heaviest on your heart such as these are the best ones to have. Yves had another year of his life at home in Timmins with his family and friends that if he had not become motivated to leave the hospital, he never would have had. I am grateful and privileged to have had a part in that.
I am proud to have been able to call Yves Joanisse my friend. I will miss him more that words can express, but I will never forget what he taught me: the value of a human life, that life is too short, and that we need to cherish every moment we have.
http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=57938&catname=Local+News
My friend, Yves Joanisse. I will never forget him. He will always live on in my heart. :)
http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/images/www.timminspress.comf/newsphotos/file2122004124437AM.jpg
Some of you who know me know I am a critical care nurse. I used to work in an ICU at a large teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We specialize in post-transplant cases. These cases can be very rewarding, but also very challenging as well. Some of these patients can suffer from rejection of their transplanted organs as well as infections due to their immunocompromised state created to prevent them from rejecting their organs. Because of these complications, some of these patients can be in the ICU for a very long time, sometimes up to months at a time. When this occurs, they can become a whole different challenge to care for. They suffer from depression and poor motivation. These patients accept transplantation in hopes of trading an unmanageable disease for a more manageable disease. Even though these patients want a transplant for a second lease on life, when they hit complications, even the most motivated of spirits can suffer. This brings me to my friend, Yves.
He suffered from Cystic Fibrosis. At 20 years of age, he had his first double lung transplant. He sailed through the recovery phase and was home in a few weeks back in Timmins, some 8 hours north of Toronto. A month later he suffered acute rejection and was back in Toronto. It becomes a dilemma whether or not to give these patients a second transplant because of how ill they become during rejection and the reduced likelihood of success. Yves was a fighter and a warm, happy spirit, so the team went ahead. Sometimes having a fighting spirit is a better set of predictability of success than any statistic a doctor can offer. A donor became available and he had his second double lung transplant.
The second one took a lot more out of him than his first. He was in out ICU for about three months when I came in to care for him. He was depressed and very unmotivated. He had not been out of bed nor had he walked in that whole time. He was frail and weak. By the end of the fourth day that I cared for him, he took his first steps. It was very painful for him, because of the lack of use his muscles had had in the previous three months not including the time before that that he waited on a ventilator for lungs.
He became determined during those pivotal four days and left our unit three weeks later. I visited his bedside every day during that time. Nurses don't generally maintain friendships with their patients because of the emotional difficulty of impending loss, but if I had never maintained a friendship with this young man, it would have been only my loss.
Yves taught me what determination meant. He taught me the value of unconditional friendship. He also taught me that the friendships that are the heaviest on your heart such as these are the best ones to have. Yves had another year of his life at home in Timmins with his family and friends that if he had not become motivated to leave the hospital, he never would have had. I am grateful and privileged to have had a part in that.
I am proud to have been able to call Yves Joanisse my friend. I will miss him more that words can express, but I will never forget what he taught me: the value of a human life, that life is too short, and that we need to cherish every moment we have.
http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=57938&catname=Local+News
My friend, Yves Joanisse. I will never forget him. He will always live on in my heart. :)
http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/images/www.timminspress.comf/newsphotos/file2122004124437AM.jpg