Review: Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse

by Janice Hudson

My Synopsis

Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse

My Thoughts

I didn't want this to end!  I wanted more and more stories.  More and more pictures.  But it doesn't matter, it wouldn't have been enough. I'm a junkie.  I wanted to ride in the helicopter with the crew and follow them around on their trauma calls, like a voyeur, but being able to close my eyes if there was too much blood. (I'm a wanna-be trauma junkie; the sight of blood makes me faint.)

It takes a special person to be a trauma nurse, and Hudson is just that.  In all of the stories she shares, her sensitivity and compassion is evident, with several memorable cases that brought her and colleagues to tears.  Nurses (and doctors) don't become hardened just because they see tragedy every day.  They are humans with feelings, and the author did a wonderful job relating this.

One story that made me cry was when they were called to pick up a newborn baby from a remote hospital to transfer him to a larger hospital.  Hudson and her flight crew were incensed because the call was in the middle of the night for...get this...an infected belly button.  The requesting physician was young and inexperienced, and the crew was bewildered by his panic. When they arrived, Hudson assured the parents the baby would be fine.  His vital signs were normal, and he looked pink and healthy.  After transporting him and getting some sleep after several more trauma calls that night, she checked with the hospital later and the baby had died.  The young physician was correct in his urgency, and the experienced flight nurse learned never again to take things so lightly.  

Do I Recommend?

Oh yeah :) 

Source

Library

My Rating

5/5