Each week seems busier than the last as I am given more and more responsibilities each day. I have been seeing a random assortment of patients since my hospital is too small for rotations but have yet to see a single new type 1 diabetic come in. Hopefully soon! This hectic week was culminated by an interesting event.

Last Friday I found myself occupying the dietitian's office while screening patients. The office is located around the corner from patient rooms, many of whom are elderly and are awaiting nursing home placement. I often can hear patients screaming or yelling from down the hall while I am working. This particular day I heard a women screaming for over a minute, "I can't BREATHE!". At first I assumed that someone would be there to help fairly soon since the nurses are buzzing about constantly. But after hearing this poor woman scream for so long I ran down the hallway to see what was going on. I saw the woman in bed yelling and there wasn't anyone around. I ran down the hall looking for someone and finally found a discharge planner who went in to check on this woman. After a minute or so, it was realized that she was in need of additional help and a CAT team was called. I later found out that the woman was intubated and taken down to the ICU. It seems that this woman is often a handful, but I hope that this is not the reason why it took so long for anyone to respond to her screams. It was a scary thing to witness. At least she is doing okay now though.