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TO THE DARKSIDE LJIDOL
May. 8th, 2011 09:17 pmBased on a true story.
Teresa had been a nurse for over forty years. Her husband had died ten years before; her son and daughter both married and out of state rarely came to see her anymore. Her life revolved around her God and her cats. She heated a meal in her microwave each night and sat reading her well-worn Bible aloud to her three cats.
A sixty-four she was a reed of a woman, but strong, her arms like bands of steel. Working as an RN on the oncology floor was her calling. She never wanted to be in charge, just take care of her patients.
One night at home while she read her bible, she dozed as she was apt to do; when the Angel came to her and gave her a message from her Lord. Her path was clear now.
The next night Teresa studied the board of patients trying to decide which patient needed her most. The oncology floor was not like it had been when she’d come to work on it twenty years ago. Then they had mixed chemo on the floor. Now it was done in pharmacy with specially ventilated hoods. Patients received their chemo on the oncology floor; now it was all done outpatient.
She sighed as she began checking her charts and trying to figure out the computer orders, something else new. Everything was always changing. Well, she fought it every inch of the way. While these young hussy nurses wore colored scrubs and scrubs with all kinds of patterns on them, their tight pants showing their underwear beneath and all colors of running shoes while she was still professional wearing her white dress, nursing shoes and cap. They called her a dinosaur. Maybe so, but now she’d leave this earth her Lord‘s champion.
At one in the morning the floor was quiet, nurses busy charting. The hallway was empty. She had made certain the patient was a do not resuscitate (DNR). The vial of potassium was in her pocket along with a syringe of normal saline. She slipped into the lady’s room locked herself in a stall and pushed the saline into the vial. She shook it until it dissolved, then withdrew it back into the needle. She flushed the vial and pocketed the syringe.
Mrs. Wright was a late stage lung cancer. She had been brought in from a nursing home with pneumonia and when cleared up would be sent back. Only Teresa knew it was her mission to assist Mrs. Wright to her heavenly reward.
No one was in the hallway when she entered the room, and her hands were steady as she pushed the lethal content into Mrs. Wright’s central line. Potassium burns like fire in the veins but a central line goes directly into the heart so the patient doesn’t feel the burn and call out. Like a specter she slipped out and back to her patients.
Mrs. Wright was found an hour later by her nurse. Since she was stage four cancer, had been in the hospital three days and was a DNR, there was no autopsy. No problem. Though even had there been any, since potassium is produced by the body, too much or too little wouldn’t have caused concerns of suspicious death.
The next night Teresa worked, Mr. Miller (who was a late stage Hodgkin Disease) received a lethal dose of insulin, yet another chemical made by the body. The severe convulsions he suffered before dying did not prick Teresa’s conscience because he was in a coma, so would not be aware of them.
Each night Teresa worked one sometimes two or three DNR patients passed. Some with, some without her assistance. And each morning Teresa read her Bible before she went to bed to her peaceful dreams with her cats curled about her. She often wished the beautiful Angel would return to her. She assumed it was because she was successful in the mission the Lord had set before her that he did not.
Teresa had been carrying out her mission for five years when a young mother came in with ovarian cancer. They were treating her aggressively with surgery, chemo and radiation but Teresa knew how much pain the young woman was going to suffer.
That next morning the Angel returned as she slept and gave her a even more challenging mission. Now she would need to watch for those of his flock who needed her help passing without suffering through long, debilitating diseases. The young woman was her first mission.
At her death, the autopsy was inconclusive as to cause, but due to her cancer, the surgery, chemo and radiation it was not ruled suspicious. The coroner saw what he expected to see. Yes, her potassium levels were high, but not unexpected in a chemo patient.
This night Teresa stood looking at the board, not aware she was also being watched. The charge nurse had been suspicious for months and had spoken with the floor manager. She was heartily laughed at with even the thought that Teresa was capable of doing something so monstrous--good grief the woman was in her sixties and a sweeter, more dedicated nurse would you never meet. Her patients adored her and other nurses loved to work with her.
Nevertheless she kept a close eye on Teresa all night. After being called to the desk for report, she went hunting for her and saw Teresa slip out of Room 820.
“What are you doing in there?”
Teresa jumped, her hands shook so she grasped them tightly and said a prayer for strength to her Lord, “I heard the IV alarming.”
The charge watched her walk away. She stepped into the patient’s room and discovered her in convulsions. Pushing the button for help, she was helpless to do anything, even as the room filled with help, but watch the patient die. A code was called but it was too late to help, the patient was gone.
Nothing out of the ordinary was discovered in the autopsy, but the charge nurse went over her manager's head to administration.
“I think we have an 'Angel of Death' working 8 South, the oncology floor.”
“Those are serious charges. None of these patients show anything suspicious in their autopsies.”
“They wouldn’t if she is using potassium or insulin. Our floor stock of potassium has been out of line for some time.”
The charge nurse was summarily dismissed with a, “Speak to no one about this, not even your manager or your best friend.”
Shortly thereafter; unbeknownst to anyone during a routine maintenance of the air conditioning vents cameras were hidden in the hallways of the floor. Patient rooms are off-limits due to privacy issues.
They waited until they had her coming from three patients' rooms...who died shortly after her exit...before the police came for her.
During her interrogation Teresa broke and told them she on a mission to ease suffering for the Lord, that his Angel came to her. The detective asked her how she knew it was an Angel from God rather than a demon from the devil.
“But he was beautiful.”
“That’s why they call him the Great Deceiver.”
Color drained from her face. She sat silent and thought. She refused to answer any further questions. The only thing she said was, “Someone please take care of my cats.”
In her cell that night she chewed through her wrist and her last words were written on the bare white wall in her blood, “I was seduced by the dark side, God forgive me.”
She is the reason potassium can no longer be kept on the Medical Center’s floors anymore. It must be mixed in bags in the pharmacy.
There have been Angels of Mercy since Teresa, but I don’t think any one as prolific. Insulin is still be used, but nurses are watched closer now. Most floors have cameras, you just don’t know they are there.
It bothers me that they waited. That two more people died because they didn’t come for her and push her after the first recorded death. Why did they need to die? Is there some quota requirement somewhere?
The charge nurse was a close friend, not me. The other thoughts from Teresa, I fictionalized from parts of her diary that were printed (and some not) in the local newspaper.
I don’t know what became of the cats.
Names were changed to protect the guilty and the deceased and their families.
Teresa had been a nurse for over forty years. Her husband had died ten years before; her son and daughter both married and out of state rarely came to see her anymore. Her life revolved around her God and her cats. She heated a meal in her microwave each night and sat reading her well-worn Bible aloud to her three cats.
A sixty-four she was a reed of a woman, but strong, her arms like bands of steel. Working as an RN on the oncology floor was her calling. She never wanted to be in charge, just take care of her patients.
One night at home while she read her bible, she dozed as she was apt to do; when the Angel came to her and gave her a message from her Lord. Her path was clear now.
The next night Teresa studied the board of patients trying to decide which patient needed her most. The oncology floor was not like it had been when she’d come to work on it twenty years ago. Then they had mixed chemo on the floor. Now it was done in pharmacy with specially ventilated hoods. Patients received their chemo on the oncology floor; now it was all done outpatient.
She sighed as she began checking her charts and trying to figure out the computer orders, something else new. Everything was always changing. Well, she fought it every inch of the way. While these young hussy nurses wore colored scrubs and scrubs with all kinds of patterns on them, their tight pants showing their underwear beneath and all colors of running shoes while she was still professional wearing her white dress, nursing shoes and cap. They called her a dinosaur. Maybe so, but now she’d leave this earth her Lord‘s champion.
At one in the morning the floor was quiet, nurses busy charting. The hallway was empty. She had made certain the patient was a do not resuscitate (DNR). The vial of potassium was in her pocket along with a syringe of normal saline. She slipped into the lady’s room locked herself in a stall and pushed the saline into the vial. She shook it until it dissolved, then withdrew it back into the needle. She flushed the vial and pocketed the syringe.
Mrs. Wright was a late stage lung cancer. She had been brought in from a nursing home with pneumonia and when cleared up would be sent back. Only Teresa knew it was her mission to assist Mrs. Wright to her heavenly reward.
No one was in the hallway when she entered the room, and her hands were steady as she pushed the lethal content into Mrs. Wright’s central line. Potassium burns like fire in the veins but a central line goes directly into the heart so the patient doesn’t feel the burn and call out. Like a specter she slipped out and back to her patients.
Mrs. Wright was found an hour later by her nurse. Since she was stage four cancer, had been in the hospital three days and was a DNR, there was no autopsy. No problem. Though even had there been any, since potassium is produced by the body, too much or too little wouldn’t have caused concerns of suspicious death.
The next night Teresa worked, Mr. Miller (who was a late stage Hodgkin Disease) received a lethal dose of insulin, yet another chemical made by the body. The severe convulsions he suffered before dying did not prick Teresa’s conscience because he was in a coma, so would not be aware of them.
Each night Teresa worked one sometimes two or three DNR patients passed. Some with, some without her assistance. And each morning Teresa read her Bible before she went to bed to her peaceful dreams with her cats curled about her. She often wished the beautiful Angel would return to her. She assumed it was because she was successful in the mission the Lord had set before her that he did not.
Teresa had been carrying out her mission for five years when a young mother came in with ovarian cancer. They were treating her aggressively with surgery, chemo and radiation but Teresa knew how much pain the young woman was going to suffer.
That next morning the Angel returned as she slept and gave her a even more challenging mission. Now she would need to watch for those of his flock who needed her help passing without suffering through long, debilitating diseases. The young woman was her first mission.
At her death, the autopsy was inconclusive as to cause, but due to her cancer, the surgery, chemo and radiation it was not ruled suspicious. The coroner saw what he expected to see. Yes, her potassium levels were high, but not unexpected in a chemo patient.
This night Teresa stood looking at the board, not aware she was also being watched. The charge nurse had been suspicious for months and had spoken with the floor manager. She was heartily laughed at with even the thought that Teresa was capable of doing something so monstrous--good grief the woman was in her sixties and a sweeter, more dedicated nurse would you never meet. Her patients adored her and other nurses loved to work with her.
Nevertheless she kept a close eye on Teresa all night. After being called to the desk for report, she went hunting for her and saw Teresa slip out of Room 820.
“What are you doing in there?”
Teresa jumped, her hands shook so she grasped them tightly and said a prayer for strength to her Lord, “I heard the IV alarming.”
The charge watched her walk away. She stepped into the patient’s room and discovered her in convulsions. Pushing the button for help, she was helpless to do anything, even as the room filled with help, but watch the patient die. A code was called but it was too late to help, the patient was gone.
Nothing out of the ordinary was discovered in the autopsy, but the charge nurse went over her manager's head to administration.
“I think we have an 'Angel of Death' working 8 South, the oncology floor.”
“Those are serious charges. None of these patients show anything suspicious in their autopsies.”
“They wouldn’t if she is using potassium or insulin. Our floor stock of potassium has been out of line for some time.”
The charge nurse was summarily dismissed with a, “Speak to no one about this, not even your manager or your best friend.”
Shortly thereafter; unbeknownst to anyone during a routine maintenance of the air conditioning vents cameras were hidden in the hallways of the floor. Patient rooms are off-limits due to privacy issues.
They waited until they had her coming from three patients' rooms...who died shortly after her exit...before the police came for her.
During her interrogation Teresa broke and told them she on a mission to ease suffering for the Lord, that his Angel came to her. The detective asked her how she knew it was an Angel from God rather than a demon from the devil.
“But he was beautiful.”
“That’s why they call him the Great Deceiver.”
Color drained from her face. She sat silent and thought. She refused to answer any further questions. The only thing she said was, “Someone please take care of my cats.”
In her cell that night she chewed through her wrist and her last words were written on the bare white wall in her blood, “I was seduced by the dark side, God forgive me.”
She is the reason potassium can no longer be kept on the Medical Center’s floors anymore. It must be mixed in bags in the pharmacy.
There have been Angels of Mercy since Teresa, but I don’t think any one as prolific. Insulin is still be used, but nurses are watched closer now. Most floors have cameras, you just don’t know they are there.
It bothers me that they waited. That two more people died because they didn’t come for her and push her after the first recorded death. Why did they need to die? Is there some quota requirement somewhere?
The charge nurse was a close friend, not me. The other thoughts from Teresa, I fictionalized from parts of her diary that were printed (and some not) in the local newspaper.
I don’t know what became of the cats.
Names were changed to protect the guilty and the deceased and their families.
