Emergency medicine doesn\u2019t take holidays off, but this was the first time I\u2019d pulled an EMT shift on Christmas. Already we were racing to a studio apartment in an independent living community to answer the night\u2019s first 911 call. I couldn\u2019t help thinking this was supposed to be a night of miracles, not injuries.<\/p>\n
The ambulance had barely come to a full stop when my partner, Dan, and I jumped out with a gurney. A staff member from the facility waited at the apartment door.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss Lily had a fall,\u201d she said as we knelt down around the elderly, white-haired woman on the floor. \u201cShe\u2019s one hundred years old,\u201d the staff member informed us with a note of pride.<\/p>\n
Miss Lily\u2019s studio apartment was neat as a pin. She\u2019d even decorated for the holidays. \u201cWe\u2019re going to examine you to see where you\u2019re hurt,\u201d I told her. Miss Lily nodded. She winced when Dan touched her hip but tried to hide it behind a smile. \u201cShortening and rotation of the leg and foot on the affected side,\u201d Dan said. Miss Lily winced again. \u201cIncreased pain with palpitation to the hip.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan and I nodded to each other. It was a classic case of fractured hip\u2014very common in elderly people. We lifted her gingerly onto the gurney, started her IV in the ambulance and headed to the High Desert Medical Center at full speed.<\/p>\n
I knew the harsh realities of a broken hip. Many older patients never fully recovered their strength or stopped hurting from their injury. We learned that Miss Lily had been relatively pain-free and strong for 100 years. Even now she bravely chatted with us between gasps of pain. All that would work in her favor, but it just seemed wrong, somehow, for her to have such a setback on Christmas, of all nights.<\/p>\n
Once we got her settled in a hospital bed in the ER, Miss Lily shut her eyes, signaling she was finally overwhelmed by the pain. She looked gray and wilted on the bright white hospital sheets. Colleen, one of the nurses, hooked her up to a cardiac monitor. She pulled the curtain shut around Miss Lily for privacy.<\/p>\n
It was Christmas somewhere, but in the ER it looked like any night. Doctors, nurses and EMTs dodging one another to get to patients. I got out of the way and went to the supply closet to restock the ambulance.<\/p>\n
Afterward I glanced in at Miss Lily. She lay propped up on some pillows, eyes closed, breathing unevenly. She might not make it through the night<\/em>, I thought. It still didn\u2019t seem right. Christmas was a time of surprises and miracles, not suffering and death, even after a long life like Miss Lily\u2019s.<\/p>\n I sat down outside the ER to catch up on my paperwork before we got another call. When I looked up from my writing I saw Dan pushing the gurney away from Miss Lily\u2019s area. I went to help. Just then Colleen popped her head out from behind Miss Lily\u2019s curtain. She looked stunned. \u201cWhat is it?\u201d I asked. ER nurses have seen it all. What was it that had left Colleen speechless?<\/p>\n Instead of answering me, Colleen drew back the curtain. Miss Lily sat there, upright in her bed, beaming.<\/p>\n \u201cMiss Lily,\u201d I stammered, \u201cyou look much better.\u201d Her cheeks were all apples and peaches as she nodded. \u201cYes, yes,\u201d she said. \u201cThe medicine worked wonders, just wonders!\u201d<\/p>\n As far as I knew no one had administered any medications to Miss Lily. Colleen confirmed my impression with a shake of her head.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich medicine?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy, the little pill the nurse gave me,\u201d she said. \u201cThe nice nurse with the white cap.\u201d<\/p>\n White cap? Nurses hadn\u2019t worn them in decades. My own sister, an RN, had complained about having to wear one for her formal graduation photo. No nurse would bother with a cap while on duty\u2014especially in the ER. And besides, no one would have given Miss Lily any pills. Any medicine would have been administered through the IV in her arm.<\/p>\n But there didn\u2019t seem any reason to tell Miss Lily any of that. Instead I just squeezed her hand gently. \u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n Colleen and I stepped around to the other side of the curtain. We faced each other, baffled. \u201cDo you believe in angels?\u201d Colleen whispered.<\/p>\n How else to account for Miss Lily\u2019s healing? \u201cYes,\u201d I said. \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if Miss Lily lived to be 101 or 102 or how old. But I do know that an angel watched over her for the rest of her days. The same angel who brought her comfort that night in the ER. Christmas miracles really can happen anywhere, even when it seems like any other night.<\/p>\n