Monitor

The small TV over the bed is called a monitor. This monitor tells the nurses and doctors what the patient's heart is doing every second. It also lets the nurses know if there is not enough oxygen (air) getting to the patient's lungs. When the body is not working right or the lungs are not getting enough oxygen, the monitor tells the nurse by making a noise called an alarm and red or yellow lights show up on the TV screen. The wires that hang down from the monitor go to different parts of the patient's body. The wires send messages from the body to the monitor. The monitor reads these messages and puts the messages on the screen as numbers. Nurses and doctors are trained to understand these numbers.

Listen to a monitor here (Sound)