Vultures
Anne Ward sits in operating rooms. Bright white lights shine above her. The air in there is cold, about 66 degrees Fahrenheit. The room is clean. Ward is an Anesthesiologist.
Normally, her job is to make sure patients stay sedated during surgery.
Normally, she hears the rhythmic beeping of the pulse monitor.
Normally, she loves doing her job…unless the patient is already dead.
***
Anne sits on her white couch in her family room in her stone tutor Mt. Lebanon home in the south hills of Pittsburgh. She talks with Madison Cable, a sixteen year-old who recently passed her driver’s test.
As Madison shows Anne her picture I.D., two words make Anne’s eyes grow three times in size.
They are spelled out in green letters directly below her picture, “ORGAN DONOR.”
“You’re an organ donor?” Anne asks.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be, aren’t you one?” Madison responds.
“No, I’m not letting the vultures getting anywhere near me.” Anne says.
***
Ward dresses for work in her navy blue Mercy Hospital scrubs. She wears bright orange Crocs shoes with white socks.
She’s been an Anesthesiologist for 14 years and she says the hardest part of her job is when an organ donor dies.
“The doctors waiting to take their organs just all line up,” she says. “I’m sure it is hard for those doctors too, but they’re vultures. They know this person who died has a family, a family who is very upset. But they start to surround the person, like vultures. And then, they just dig in.”
Ward explains when an organ donor dies; the doctors who are there to take vital organs go first, followed by doctors who take skin, bones, and other body parts.
“That doesn’t bother me as much. These doctors do swarm, but they’re not greedy. It’s when the doctors come for tissues, skin, and even the ones that pluck out people’s eyeballs, that’s the hard part.”
Ward explains that when these doctors come in she tries to focus on something else in the operating room, while still monitoring the patient.
“It’s just hard to watch them peeling flesh off of the patient,” says Ward. “I could never be an organ donor after seeing what the vultures do to people.
***
Ward explains after the vultures leave, they also make it look like they have never been there.
“It’s like they are masters of disguise. If a family member wants their loved one to have an open-casket funeral after the vultures get them, it’s still possible.”
Ward explains that organ donors can look “as normal as a dead person can look.”
“They have a lot of tricks. If they take your eyeballs, they’ll put artificial eyes in. If they take your bones, they’ll put in rods so you don’t look hollow, it’s pretty creepy,” says Ward.
Ward also explains that if doctors take skin, it still appears that there is still some of the donors skin left, and “most people are buried in long sleeves so it doesn’t matter.”
***
“After leaving the operating room in those situations I always need a break, even after 14 years of doing it,” says Ward.
Ward says during those breaks she’ll take a quick walk. She’ll think about her husband, John, and children, Alexa, 14, Brian, 12 and nine-year-old twins, Katie and Kelly. She also thinks about her parents and siblings.
“Thinking about my loved ones takes me to my place. It brings me serenity,” Ward says.
Ward also says she tries to erase the images inside of the operating room out of her mind.
“At the end of the day, you just want to keep those horrific images out of your mind.” She says, “You don’t want to come home to your family and have what I’ve seen that day painted over my face. My family makes happy, my family is what keeps me going.”
Anne Ward sits in operating rooms. Bright white lights shine above her. The air in there is cold, about 66 degrees Fahrenheit. The room is clean. Ward is an Anesthesiologist.
Normally, her job is to make sure patients stay sedated during surgery.
Normally, she hears the rhythmic beeping of the pulse monitor.
Normally, she loves doing her job…unless the patient is already dead.
***
Anne sits on her white couch in her family room in her stone tutor Mt. Lebanon home in the south hills of Pittsburgh. She talks with Madison Cable, a sixteen year-old who recently passed her driver’s test.
As Madison shows Anne her picture I.D., two words make Anne’s eyes grow three times in size.
They are spelled out in green letters directly below her picture, “ORGAN DONOR.”
“You’re an organ donor?” Anne asks.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be, aren’t you one?” Madison responds.
“No, I’m not letting the vultures getting anywhere near me.” Anne says.
***
Ward dresses for work in her navy blue Mercy Hospital scrubs. She wears bright orange Crocs shoes with white socks.
She’s been an Anesthesiologist for 14 years and she says the hardest part of her job is when an organ donor dies.
“The doctors waiting to take their organs just all line up,” she says. “I’m sure it is hard for those doctors too, but they’re vultures. They know this person who died has a family, a family who is very upset. But they start to surround the person, like vultures. And then, they just dig in.”
Ward explains when an organ donor dies; the doctors who are there to take vital organs go first, followed by doctors who take skin, bones, and other body parts.
“That doesn’t bother me as much. These doctors do swarm, but they’re not greedy. It’s when the doctors come for tissues, skin, and even the ones that pluck out people’s eyeballs, that’s the hard part.”
Ward explains that when these doctors come in she tries to focus on something else in the operating room, while still monitoring the patient.
“It’s just hard to watch them peeling flesh off of the patient,” says Ward. “I could never be an organ donor after seeing what the vultures do to people.
***
Ward explains after the vultures leave, they also make it look like they have never been there.
“It’s like they are masters of disguise. If a family member wants their loved one to have an open-casket funeral after the vultures get them, it’s still possible.”
Ward explains that organ donors can look “as normal as a dead person can look.”
“They have a lot of tricks. If they take your eyeballs, they’ll put artificial eyes in. If they take your bones, they’ll put in rods so you don’t look hollow, it’s pretty creepy,” says Ward.
Ward also explains that if doctors take skin, it still appears that there is still some of the donors skin left, and “most people are buried in long sleeves so it doesn’t matter.”
***
“After leaving the operating room in those situations I always need a break, even after 14 years of doing it,” says Ward.
Ward says during those breaks she’ll take a quick walk. She’ll think about her husband, John, and children, Alexa, 14, Brian, 12 and nine-year-old twins, Katie and Kelly. She also thinks about her parents and siblings.
“Thinking about my loved ones takes me to my place. It brings me serenity,” Ward says.
Ward also says she tries to erase the images inside of the operating room out of her mind.
“At the end of the day, you just want to keep those horrific images out of your mind.” She says, “You don’t want to come home to your family and have what I’ve seen that day painted over my face. My family makes happy, my family is what keeps me going.”
No comments:
Post a Comment