I had a close relationship with my grandmother who lived in India all her life. We used to talk for hours on the phone, telling each other how things were going on with us in two different cultures. In my culture, I was taught from my parents to spend more time with grandparents, sharing our feelings and emotions. Since my childhood, I was also told to take care of them when they became old.
Two years ago from now in 2016, I was back home in India to visit my grandma. She was very sick then. One day when I was taking care of my grandma to make her feel relaxed in her bedroom, she suddenly started feeling chest pains. She said it felt like her heart was burning fire rapidly as it was shooting pain in her chest. My family ran like the wind to the hospital when they started seeing her pain increase and having hard time breathing. They decided to take her to the hospital right away. As they approached the Katyayani hospital at around 12:00 a.m. there were no doctors available to attend to my grandma in the emergency. However, there were nurses available to help. The nurse acted quickly and took my grandma to a room where they started chest compressions until the doctor arrived. The nurse knew most of the procedure on how to give first aid to a patient when they were at the critical stage. Seeing how the nurses reacting quickly and properly to save my grandma’s life, I was impressed. When the doctor came, my grandma was already out of danger. I believed that it was the nurses who saved my grandma’s life. Since that day, I decided to become a nurse.
My grandma, who had been fighting cardiovascular disease for several years, she passed away. She didn’t live to see me studying to become a nurse. However, the impression of how the nurse saved her life at the critical moment encouraged me to work hard toward the nursing profession.