r/emergencymedicine • u/Amazing-Ad8160 • Feb 09 '25
Advice Tips for a difficult death
New attending. Had a gruesome death of a little boy happen in front of me the other day. I will spare the specific details but it was a penetrating trauma. Peds trauma cracked his chest, chest tubes, whole blood, blood on the floor, fingers in the wounds to stop the bleeding, the whole deal. Screaming parents and grandparents afterword. Have two sons similarly aged and I can’t get this out of my head to function normally at home. Just so happened to happen right before a week off so haven’t been back to work yet. Seen what seems like tons of deaths at this point and was never affected to this degree . Never seen a traumatic death of a healthy child though (seen pediatric codes but chronically Ill kids on borrowed time) Any tips for getting over it? How do you deal with bad deaths and making sure you don’t develop ptsd/burn out? I love what I do but if this was any weekly occurrence I would quit.
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u/Nurseytypechick RN Feb 09 '25
Doc... these suck no matter how long you've been on the job. It's normal for this to bother you. I'm so sorry.
These cases are horrific.
1: Tetris. Stupid, but helps your brain process. Evidence backed.km9ocg 2: Culturally competent therapy and brainspotting/EMDR. Process the shit before it eats you. Can't recommend this enough. 3: It's not your fault. It's not trauma's fault. We all do the best we can with these.
Deep breath. Strength to you.