tragedy.

This month in the ICU has been extremely challenging in many different ways. My body is physically exhausted-I've never felt so sleep deprived. I've been forced to overcome my needle stick rather quickly. My heart is heavy for the patient's I've lost and today in particular is a sad day for me. I've been helping care for a young gentleman, only 39 years old, who was admitted to our ICU a short 5 days ago with Steven Johnson's syndrome and respiratory failure likely secondary to a medication he was recently given to treat bronchitis or an ear infection, the documentation is unclear. An extremely unfortunate situation. Yesterday we discovered that he had profound swelling in his brain and ultimately that his brain was not functioning. I'm not sure how this happened. He continued to clinically deteriorate today and given his prognosis the family made the decision to withdraw care. He has a wife and a daughter who is only 1 years old. I can't even swallow the reality of what has happened and how quickly their lives have changed as a result of this outcome. My soul aches. And for reasons I can't seem to understand, the words of his wife keep repeating in my head: 'all he did was take a medication' . This could happen to anyone of us, it's absolutely tragic and heart wrenching to say the least. The icu has been a brutal reminder of both the uncertainty of life and the importance of cherishing each moment in life.