To See Each Other as Equals
By: Pablo Pereyra
Tags: Society, The Bad Influence, Health, Covid 19, Healthcare

A tracheostomy is a surgically made orifice in the trachea to facilitate breathing on patients whose airways are compromised.

As patients improve, doctors or respiratory therapists place caps in the tracheostomy tube to assess if the patient can breathe on his or her own. If they can breathe properly, then the tracheostomy tube is removed, and the stoma closes.

One of the patients on the surgical floor removed the cap of the tracheostomy tube.

Among other medical problems, the patient has a traumatic brain injury.

The patient is confused.

Example of a capped tracheostomy tube. Image by bluebudgie from Pixabay

On previous days that patient had not been able to manage its airway, and the doctors had made the small incision in the neck to place a small tube through which air would reach the lungs.

While in the ICU, ventilators dialed the appropriate pressure at which oxygen was flowing to the lungs.

As the patient improved, there was no longer a need for the patient to be on a ventilator, and the doctors and respiratory therapists capped the tracheostomy tube.

The patient’s brain it’s swollen. The patient speaks non-sense.

When the hospital staff asks the patient, “When is your birthday,” the patient would answer things like, “Hamburger.”

The patient is impulsive.

In a moment, the patient removed the cap of the tracheostomy tube that secured the airway.

The patient keeps on moving his or her mouth. But without the cap, the vocal cords are not being activated. The mouth moves, but there is no production of sound. It is a bizarre experience.

The patient is attempting to talk forcefully. The air rushes through the tracheostomy tube. It is as when someone blows air from a straw.

The nurse is trying to secure the airway.

The nurse attempts to stay out of the way of the airflow coming from the trach tube. But there are moments when it had to place itself in front of the patient. So to get a better view of what the situation is.

The priority is to secure the airway. To replace the part of the tube that the patient removed from its neck.

There is a spare part at the head of the bed. It should take only a few seconds to replace it.

But as the patient keeps on trying to talk and moving, seconds seem like eons.

Air keeps on rushing from the patient’s lungs towards the staff that is trying to assist in securing the airway.

During the COVID times, only God knows what anyone has in their lungs.

The air comes as a fan, like turbulence on an airplane, straight to the face of the healthcare worker.

Everyone has an N-95, the gold standard for protective masks. And goggles. But the hospital goggles are ill-fitting. They feel as they are falling down the bridge of their noses.

Fear creeps in.

The staff asks the patient who has a traumatic brain injury to please stop talking, so air would not come like a hurricane from the tracheostomy.

But the patient does not understand.

The patient cannot possibly understand.

The patient has a traumatic brain injury.

This brain does not work like other brains because it is swelled-up.

The patient cannot follow commands.

The patient keeps on trying to talk.

The patient keeps on blowing air into the face of the healthcare worker.