a member

I came extremely close to causing another major health issue for an elderly woman at a hospital. I used to work as a dietary aide at said hospital. Of course we're supposed to keep track of the patients' dietary restrictions, allergies, specific diets, etc. Well, a nurse called to ask for a pastry for one of her patients. She said she didn't ask for anything specific—just whatever we thought she would like (which was actually really cute). I was asked to be the one to bring something to her. I remember putting thought into what I picked for her, but uh... not enough thought. I don't remember what exactly it was, but I remember it had a cream cheese filling. She's allergic to dairy. We had it in our logs! For fuck's sake, I wrote the damn note on the card for her tray! And it just vanished from my mind when it mattered most. I have no idea what she was in there for. So when a nurse caught on to the allergic reaction she had and called us about it, I was mortified. From what I heard, the patient wasn't sure what was happening at first, but it felt like a bunch of little bee stings, and there was some swelling at some point that the nurses caught early. Even after that, she said the pastry was amazing 😅 I. Felt. HORRIBLE. It was INSANELY hard to stop myself from quitting right then and there. How could I stay after something like that? What if I just almost killed someone!? What if it had been a patient with a worse condition, and an allergic reaction on top of it could have killed them!? I did eventually tell my best friend and their fiancée about it, but it took me somewhere around seven years to do it.