So true.....oone of the nurses I work with once asked me how I can deal with all of the young patients with such devastating injuries without crying every day. I told her you have to look at what they learn to do in our facility and find the joy in that. Most of the paraplegic and quadraplegia patients we get are under 30, and most of the head injuries are even younger.
I think it's easier in rehab, because we see them once they are stable (usually - except for that time Shands sent us a patient who was in respiratory distress DURING transport, but that is another story) and so that becomes their baseline. I only get sad sometimes when family comes in and they don't know what to say, or when I see their picture up on the wall when they were riding a bike or something.
The good times definately outweigh the bad, and I too would never work anywhere else.