Horrible day. Long story short, I went to work on my day off, had to go have a dying man sign his Trust and Will, and in the twenty minutes it took to get there, he started dying. His family was unable to talk to him, and hold his hand in his moment of need and the hospice nurse asked me if would talk to him [the dying man] while she cleaned him up and made him more comfortable. I didn't know what to do, this was a man I had never met before and his family couldn't comfort him, I take him by the hand and he immediately squeezes it, and I tell him my name. I talk to him for awhile and he's actively looking at my eyes and face, nodding and responding to me while the attorney I work for is on his phone finding out if this man can legally sign his Will and suddenly, his grip lightens slightly and he looks like he can't breathe. I call the hospice nurse, and she immediately comes over and takes his blood pressure. 'No blood pressure,' she says as she turns to his girlfriend. She feels for her pulse as I glance up and realize that this man has met my eyes. I breathe in, before I can exhale ... 'There's no pulse,' she said. The man has remanded staring at where my eyes should have been when I glanced up at him. I slowly let go of his hand and step away as his family rushes in. 'He's gone?!' says the girlfriend. The hospice nurse waits, and a minute later, checks his pulse again. It's back, faint, but there. The man starts gasping like a fish, his mouth opening and closing, his eyes never leaving where my eyes were, and I know that he's gone. This was not in my job description.
That's pretty heavy. Sorry you had to see that. Was it your first time seeing someone die? It's always the hardest.
No, not my first time. I'm actually pretty ok with death. This was just a stranger and he was touching me, it was bad. You saw that I was having a bad day earlier, it's like I had no idea that this was going to happen.
Yeah I could tell you were having a bad day. Sorry you had to go through more crap. Let's hope tomorrow is better. The Sun will come out, Tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that Tomorrow There'll be Sun.
Thats not what they say in the movies, they always say it doesn't get any easier. Sorry to hear that though, next bowl is for your client(i guess thats the proper word to use)
You had to deal with something alot of people will either freak out and leave or just...yeah who knows.....but you held yourself well...and it's going to make you a stronger person...I'm sorry to hear that...but thank god it wasn't someone you where close to.
He was too far gone. There will be a court battle as well, because of some issues in the Will regarding disinheritance. It's important to always have your affairs in order.
Ouch, i'm not so sure i understand your job, are you an attorney, or do you just get people to sign the wills???
I'm a paralegal. I do all of the work for the attorney but I can't give legal advice, bill people directly for my time or represent people in court, oh and all my work has to be overseen by an attorney [he has to sign it]. The attorney I work for specializes in Estate Planning, and basically when he goes to have someone sign a Will, I go too because there have to be witness and a signature by the lawyer as well, if that signature didn't have to be there, I'm sure he would send me on my own if I was a notary too. This was an atypical situation, we generally only deal with clients in good health who are planning for the future, not those who are dying. And I'm working on becoming a 'professional Trustee' as well.
Wow for some reason I was under the impression you were in the medical industry. As a paralegal that is definitely not in your job description, that's quite a hard day to deal with.
Its actually a really great job. On a job satisfaction scale of one through ten, ten being the best, I'm usually a thirteen. I get to do everything an attorney does but without law school and having someone else yell at me? Perfect! It's really wonderful, but I work hard, but the rest of the time, you see me on here all day. Nope, not part of my job at all, not even the type of client we ever take on.