We watch the life leave your body and go to a place none of us know and understand.
We did everything in our power to keep you alive and well and heal you with our hands.
We then eat lunch, we laugh and play, as if nothing ever happened, and we try to prepare ahead.
For the next soul to come in who needs us, the next soul to fill “the empty bed.”
Next time, you wonder why you come across nurses with that look that is always on their face and in their eyes.
It’s because we give up everything to save you and lose a little of ourself every time we lose one of you guys.
Thank a nurse. Thank a doctor. Thank a tech. Thank a respiratory therapist. Thank the lab. Thank radiology. Thank dietary and EVS.
We do a lot to prepare this empty bed and in hopes, pray we send you back out no matter how, and knowing we did our best.
We then may excuse ourselves to the bathroom or even wait until we get to the car.
Then the tears hit, or we turn up a loud song, and sit by ourselves as we drive near and far.
We tried so hard to save you and we just couldn’t do it that day, and how I wish we could have changed it or helped more with something we could have said.
Instead we have to keep moving because the next one is coming and they need us, so again we pull out the “empty bed.”
**This post was written by Amy Queen. See more from her on Facebook and Instagram.
