For You

frank blood spurts over your cupped hand
Get the doctor, run

clots fall from your lips
Hold onto me, don't look down into the basin

some water to rinse your mouth, a fresh gown
The taste forgotten, the stains unread

more platelets, oxygen, salem sump on way to OR
Reach beneath my ribs and break off half my liver, take it still warm into your outstretched hand

Intro to Peds

• one cannot assume that any tube taped/stitched in place will remain so secured (NGT vomited out, CT "fell out" 2x, IV slipped, GT leaked)
• anticipate that meds may be hidden, coughed up, refused, thrown in face
• screaming child = vocal cords adducted = block route to lungs?
• super sick kids make the world seem a terribly unjust place