This historic fiction written by Danielle Davis is based on a story shared by Lonita Zorn.
`` Good morning, Ruth, `` called Lonita as she checked in for her shift. `` How are the patients doing today?``
`` The patients are doing pretty good. I have assigned Wanda to ICU and I would like you to sign in the supplies when they come.``
`` No problem, I will go check on the patients while I wait for the supplies to come.`` As she was walking back from checking on one of the patients, she heard the delivery man was here so she hurried to meet him at the third floor supply room. When she rounded the corner she was met by the awful smell of formaldehyde. She ran to see where it was coming from. The delivery man had dropped one of the big glass jars of formaldehyde right in front of the elevator doors. Its fumes were deadly.
`` Lonita, me and you are going to have to clean up this mess,`` ordered Ruth.
`` How do you plan on doing this?``
`` Well, this is what we are going to do. I will hook an oxygen tank up to you, so I can give you oxygen while you mop it up.`` So she got me all hooked up so I could start mopping.
`` Ruth, I can`t breathe.``
`` Yes, you can. I`m giving you oxygen, so you have to be able to breathe. Keep mopping.`` So I continued mopping, but it was hard to breathe.
``Ruth,`` I stood up and gasped, ``I really can`t breathe. I don`t know why, I just can`t.``
So Ruth checked the mask and tubing it was fine. She then checked the tank`s controls. `` Oh,`` she said, `` the tank is empty.``
`` The tank is what?``
`` Well, someone must have put the empty tank in the wrong area in our store room. At least we found this out before we used it on one of our patients. We could have killed one of them. Let me hook you up to a full tank so we can finish cleaning up this mess.``
I agreed with her knowing that she felt bad enough. Head nurses weren`t supposed to make mistakes like that one. We never spoke of it again.