This beautiful woman lied in the rubble after the quake for more than a week (I think 13 days). She suffered a left tib/fib (lower leg fracture) with an external fixator, a wound on her left leg with a skin graft, and a right below the knee amputation, and she was 7 months pregnant!!!!! She went to the USS comfort for her care and a c-section. Her little boy was named Aidan and she was nursing him (or at least we were trying to have her nurse him). We were told when she had her baby she rejected him thinking there was no way her baby could have survived. He was a miracle to her. She was the most vocal of our patients. She leaned to the dramatic side and liked causing a scene. Her husband was always by her side.... a very quiet, calm man meeting her every need and command :). I really had to remind myself when I interacted with her what pain she must have been through and would still endure. We had to pre-medicate her and take her out of the tarp area and into the clinic for drsg changes because it was too traumatic for her. I changed her dressings one day and found her graft site to be too oozy for our liking, she also had some tunneling to her upper pin of her x-fix. I also tried to remove the sutures from her amputation but she was so upset (I thought she would hit me- don't blame her) so I only did half. She was so hysterical she was saying "I hear my baby crying. He has a big mouth. I don't want to feed him now!" We we took her back to her cot she told the other patients and nanny's that we tried to kill her without anesthesia.... she sure was entertaining!
The next day we took her up to the clinic area and I help teach Alisha (a newer nurse) how to do her dressings and take out the rest of her sutures. She was much better this time.
I think I just learned to have more empathy for her. She really was a strong woman! Even though sometimes she wanted to scream, cry, make a scene and I am sure crawl under a rock and forget about everything she held it all together most of the time. She also had a strong faith, paticipated in church and she was so thankful! When I went to say good bye to her she told me "Merci Cheri!" and gave me a great big hug! It was worth all that hard work in the end to help ease her pain. She still has a long recovery learning how to walk after they take out he x-fix. Remember she has an amputation on the other leg. I can't imagine the pain she has to still go through. Thank goodness she is strong, has support and lots of faith! And a little baby boy to live for and give her hope!
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