It was two months after my college graduation. I was an RN on an orthopedic trauma floor and we received a call from the emergency room. They wanted to transfer us a patient with a broken femur…wanted to. The problem? Bessie. She was 100 years old and putting up a fight. My shift was scheduled to end soon, and a combative patient admission was not a welcome thought. Still, we mobilized staff, got equipment, orders and everything we would need to provide care. We braced ourselves for a challenge.
Onto the floor came Bessie Gesheimmer…I will always remember her name. As it turned out, her fight against the admission was really a fight to see the kick off of the Pitt v Penn State Game. And when she walked out of the hospital on a new hip, I was full of stories about her childhood in Germany.
That “100 year old Fx R hip” taught me about labeling and judgement.
When I went into her room, I expected to find a combative, agitated and (likely) senile patient with a hip fracture. I assumed she would have little likelihood of being discharged anywhere but a nursing home. Instead, I found a gentle woman who, like me, loved the Pitt Panthers. We shared many of my lunch breaks. I heard about her immigration, her work in a family bakery, her children…and she kept me up to date on football scores during my shift. We connected, and it turned out that we had a lot in common.