Sundays are usually pretty slow days in the ER....especially during football season. Today, though, was the exception to the rule. It wasn't just busy...the department was full of sad cases. Here are a few:
- 64 year old female on blood thinners was putting up Christmas decorations, slipped, and fell. She had a large head bleed. The family will likely withdraw care
- 21 year old male was fixing his parents fence when the power lines somehow fell on him. He had severe electrical burn injuries, aspiration pneumonia, and is going to require multiple fasciotomies...if he survives
- A nice 19 year old hispanic male.....on dialysis!
- 37 year old female with newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer
- 44 year old female with newly diagnosed hepatocellular carcinoma
- 54 year old male with no past medical history came in with back pain and leg weakness. Ended up having a large epidural abscess and osteomyelitis
- 2 heart attacks
- 2 motorcycle accidents, 3 motor vehicle rollover accidents
- 1 gun shot wound to the chest
- 47 year old make, obese, diabetic, on dialysis, bilateral below the knee amputations...today gets a diagnosis of fournier's gangrene (horrible necrotizing infection of the scrotum)...so now he won't have testicles either
- A 45 year old with left upper extremity weakness. Normal CT brain....MRI showed an acute thalamic stroke
-ER Doc
6 comments:
Sounds like you had the day from hell!
One or two of those in a day would have made it crazy, but....oh, my!
Hope you got that drink when you got home...or at least, later on while you were off.
only one drink?
We were always told not to get emotionally involved in the cases we see and treat, but we can only block so much when at the same time we are asked to be compassionate. Days like these should make us reflect on how lucky and blessed we are.
You will be thankful for days like this when you finish residency. This gives you valuable experience so if you go work in a community ER, it will be a cake walk for you!
My program was similar to yours - big inner city trauma centre with sick as shit people. Constantly overwhelmed.
I am damn glad I was there.
Really enjoyed this post...talk about a day from hell! Anyone of those would make the heart a little heavier, but all of those things? I hope it was a very big, stiff drink that night.
Hope the holidays are going well.
G+T in a pint glass.
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