When a code blue on the psychiatry unit ends in a police interview

You hear code blues overhead in a hospital all the time, but one on a psychiatry unit is different. A young patient died after a cardiac event, and what followed looked nothing like a code blue on a medical floor. Devina Maya Wadhwa, a psychiatrist, discusses her article "When a code blue happens on a psychiatry unit," published on KevinMD. She describes the locked oxygen tanks and missing electrical outlets that slowed the response, the coroner's investigation that opened automatically, and the police interview that felt like an interrogation. You will hear why standard debriefs fall short when staff are trained for emotional safety rather than cardiac arrest, how self-doubt follows a physician long after the incident report closes, and what genuine check-ins could look like weeks later. Wadhwa also names the hypervigilance that settles over the unit afterward and why she believes sharing these stories is empowering and deeply healing. Listen to hear what psychiatric teams carry when a patient dies on their floor.

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