Sad and Surreal.

That was the atmosphere at work today. One of my colleagues was killed in a traffic accident on her way to work last evening; she was riding her bike through the park and somehow got knocked off the bike path into the path of a city bus. She died instantly. We were all just stunned and heartbroken. I've known her for over 15 years, and liked and respected her. Everyone was walking around the unit kind of in disbelief, and there were lots of tears. Our manager and the educator came in to work to help support the staff, and spent a lot of time phoning all the off duty staff to tell them, so they wouldn't hear it from the media. Even the families of the patients in the unit noticed the distress of the staff, despite their own worries. My patient's husband asked me what was wrong, and came back to ICU a couple of hours later with a big bouquet of flowers for the staff. My patient, who has been so very ill, grabbed my hand and said "I'm so sorry to hear about your friend". I almost lost it then.

The whole day was kind of surreal, with all that, and then a patient crashed and family members were fainting on the floor, and then we heard that there was a cardiac arrest in ER and the victim was a 3 year old child, who died.

That kind of day is not any kind of day I want to see again.

Rest in peace, Toscia. We will miss you.