December 8th, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
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I have already spoken about the hazards of doing favours, but recently I was reminded of another example when I was still a registrar where I only just escaped the proverbial falling anvil.
It was not an unusual case but still fairly challenging for a registrar like myself. The old man presented with an acutely tender abdomen and free air revealed on x-rays. If you ignore the outside horses for a while, this is either a perforated peptic ulcer or complicated diverticulitis (some people would throw complicated appendicitis into the mix, but I’m going to leave it in the stable with the outside horses if there are no objections). The patient needed an operation and soon. So with the sun shining happily over Australia somewhere, I took him to theater. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
December 1st, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
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A comment on my previous post by undead doctor, reminded me of another story about a lift in the old academic building in the old hospital.
Every morning all the registrars, medical officers and interns in the surgery department would meet in the boss’ office for a report on the previous night’s activities and to deal with whatever other administration had to be taken care of. After this meeting the day’s work would begin. The surgery department was on the seventh floor of the academic building. The lifts in that building were fairly small, so we did what any normal surgeon-type would have done in our situation…we tried to see exactly how many people we could cram into the lifts on the way back down after the meeting. As it turns out the lifts couldn’t take more than thirteen. I know this from the time we crammed fourteen into one lift and it got stuck between floor three and floor four. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
November 12th, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
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I thought of not telling this story at all. Recently when it was in the news here it seemed wise to rather bury it altogether. But it is something I experienced and, after all, this blog is about my experiences, so…
Six years in a department gives you enough time to do a few things that can be legendary (like this story). This was one that most at the time thought was one. However, at the time it impacted me on a different level.
The surgery department had a fairly intensive academic session every Tuesday. The highlight was a discussion delivered by one of the registrars on some or other topic. He was required to reference the absolutely newest literature and the standard was very high. It was a big deal. Most guys spent a few months putting their talks together. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
November 6th, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
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Recently I had a moment to reflect on adrenaline and adrenaline inducing sports. It was a bloody moment. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Bleeding peptic ulcers occasionally cross the path of general surgeons. Usually they stop bleeding with conservative treatment. But sometimes they don’t. Then you need to whip out the trusty knife. Even then usually the operation is little more than routine. This case, however was exceptional.
He was white as a sheet. He had been bleeding for three days but only decided to come to the hospital when he started falling over. It seemed he could at least recognise falling over as not normal. The initial gastroscopy showed a penetrating duodenal ulcer with no active bleeding. the body had managed to curtail the bleeding, partially because of vasoconstriction, but mainly due to a low blood pressure which in itself was due to loss of blood. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
October 11th, 2009 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
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I recently read a post that reminded me of an incident. depending on which side of the eyelid you found yourself that day, it could have been funny…or not.
I was doing casualty sessions after hours. It was a way of making ends meet while I was specialising, but mostly I just hated it. Anyway one night, between the snotty noses and neurotic parents a patient actually came in with a casualty-worthy complaint. He had a small laceration on his forehead. We decided to glue it together with dermabond because it was so small. I decided to leave it to the sister. After all the unit was full to overflowing with snotty noses and paranoid parents that I was required to work through and get rid of.
After a while the sister came to me. She had terror written all over her face. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
I have already spoken about the hazards of doing favours, but recently I was reminded of another example when I was still a registrar where I only just escaped the proverbial falling anvil.
