Being young is relative in Pola Gülberg’s intensive care unit. Sometimes, however, she also takes care of patients who are not even of legal age. This is stressful for the nurse, but often there is a positive aspect to all the bad.
When I say something like “man, you’re still so young” to a patient, I often see an irritated face. Young? A 55 year old? But yes, someone like that is young in our Ebersberg intensive care unit. Because most patients could be the grandparents for many of our team. Sometimes, however, we also have a patient who even the 55-year-old would immediately describe as young – like the 17-year-old who came to us with extreme shortness of breath.
When I found out his age, I had to swallow. We do have such young patients from time to time – for monitoring in the event of poisoning from pills, alcohol or other drugs. This was different with this patient, because his poor condition was not his own fault. Patients like that touch me more. For one, they are closer to me, either my own age or my child’s. On the other hand, they cannot do anything about their current situation.
During the recording, our patient spoke very little, he could not breathe enough to speak more. I especially remember his look, his huge eyes, with which he looked at us. I think he was incredibly scared. At his age, very few have had any hospital experience, certainly not in an intensive care unit – of course it’s scary when you’re suddenly in the middle of such a scenario.
At the age of 17, our patient could have been cared for in a children’s hospital. But the closest ones are at least a half-hour ambulance ride away. This is why the first aid, even for smaller children, often takes place in regular clinics like ours, provided they can be reached more quickly.
Intensive care specialist Pola Gülberg from the Ebersberger district clinic.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
As it turned out, our patient had severe pneumonia. We can basically deal with something like that. If his condition had continued to deteriorate, however, a more specialized therapy would have become necessary, for which we are not equipped in Ebersberg. Our doctors had made provisions for this case and had already found a special clinic to which he could then have been transferred.
Luckily it didn’t get that far. The patient responded quickly to our therapy and was able to leave us after just a few days. That’s the flip side of the coin, and it’s a good one: if the treatment works, young people often set a rapid pace on their way to recovery.
Pola Gülberg is an intensive care nurse. In this column, the 38-year-old talks about her work at the district clinic in Ebersberg every week. The collected texts are below sueddeutsche.de/thema/Auf Station to find.