Thursday, November 01, 2007

Code "Speed"

People usually know that when the nurses "call a code" in the hospital, it's not a good thing. However, it IS very important to be clear on which "code" they're calling. We learned the other night that "code: speed" (at least at that particular hospital) is the code which intercepts a situation that's going downhill rapidly. It doesn't mean the heart has stopped or the breathing has stopped. It just means that they're taking measures right away to ensure that the patient doesn't get anywhere close to "code blue."

But when a person gets a phone call in the middle of the night and the message is that they "called a code" on a loved one, and that he's unresponsive, it's not QUITE time to panic yet.

Now, you're not going to remember that when you get a phone call at 2 a.m., are you?

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