Jaimee Hahn

Dear World, Weekends are always wild. Orlando is a very violent city. We have a lot of violent crime, so the idea that we were going to get shootings is normal. But when we got called with, "Hey, we need all trauma nurses." I said, "Oh, all right." I went down and I get in, get gloved up and the place is just packed with staff. I look around like “what's going on?” There's not even any patients. Someone said, "We're getting some shootings." Okay. We do that all the time, I’m thinking. "There's 20." I said, "20? You mean somebody was shot 20 times?" They said, "No. 20 patients." I was still just trying to process that. About five seconds later that the first one came in the door and the next one came in the door and they just never stopped. Just didn't stop and it was devastating injuries. But we all just kind of go into autopilot. We just know what to do. A well oiled machine. The trauma bay is usually just for the sickest people. This night it was for the people who were about to go to the operating room. Everybody else who's stable, not dying this second, sorry, but you either got to go somewhere, you've got to be in another room. I'm in the furthest bed to the end. Dr. (Michael) Cheatham said, "Call the OR (Operating Room). Tell them we're coming." I call the OR. “You ready?” “Yes, we’re ready.” “I'll see you in four.” That's how long it takes to walk to the elevator, call the elevator and to make it up to the OR from the first floor. Four minutes. It's a tight move even when you're not navigating around other people. There were cops everywhere. I always take the big elevator when we're going to the OR because it's more room for all the staff, but this time it was just me and Dr. Cheatham. I'm looking at him. He's looking at me and we're both looking at the patient. I'm looking at the monitor and the patient is crying. She’s asking what happened. She wants her mom. She wants her sister. "Somebody, please. Can you please call my brother? Can you?" Yes. We'll call them. It's a short elevator ride, 30 seconds maybe. Get out and it's one set of double doors. Right there. Hit the button on the side. Doors open up and the doctor is standing there. She's got her stuff. She’s ready. That night, it was me calling the OR saying, "Hey, I'm coming up with another one." And hearing, "Okay, we're here." We’d go through the door and they'd be ready. I did not realize that they had called for backup. I was elbow deep in lifesaving and all the sudden there's people from the day shift. People from Arnold Palmer came over. People who had gone off shift at 11:00 came back. It's incredible to be part of that team. I knew that nobody was going to let me down. Sincerely, I’ll see you in four ****************** Jaimee Hahan is an ER nurse at Orlando Health and has worked the weekend night shift for the past 10 years. Instructions/Permissions *Interviews are edited and condensed *Tag @dearworld on any social/digital use. We are @dearworld on Instagram/Twitter and we are at *Facebook.com/dearworld *Credit Dear World/Daymon Gardner for portrait