March 26th, 2011 by Shadowfax in Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Emergency Medicine, Emotional Trauma, Medical Error, Missed Diagnosis, Psychiatry, Psychology, Trauma
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Bongi is an amazing writer, and if you haven’t, I strongly urge you to read his latest post, titled “The Graveyard.”
I imagine that a huge number of doctors know exactly what he means. I remember being told by a surgeon, while I was in medical school, that “you’re not a real doctor until you’ve killed someone.” I thought at the time (and still think) that there was a puerile bravado behind that admonition, but there is also a grain of truth. I have my own graveyard. Curiously, not all of its inhabitants are dead. They are the cases where I screwed up, or, charitably, cases that went bad where I feel that maybe I could’ve/should’ve done things differently.
The missed SAH
The missed DVT/PE
The missed AAA
The missed Aortic dissection
The missed MI
I remember them all, clearly and in detail. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
March 25th, 2011 by Bongi in Humor, True Stories
Tags: Death, Death Certificate, Fake ID, Government Corruption, Identity Theft, Lesotho, Morgue, Qwaqwa, South Africa
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Amazingly enough, no matter how crazy our country gets we are a darn sight better than many of our neighbours. Many people from countries around us flee to South Africa for a better life. Only problem is for the better life you sometimes have to produce a South African identity document. These can be easily bought from corrupt government officials, but why buy one if you can borrow one?
I was working in Qwaqwa. It was an amazingly poverty-stricken place with what seemed to me to be almost total joblessness. I truly don’t know how the people survived. And yet people from neighbouring Lesotho would still move there illegally. I’ve never been to Lesotho personally but if Qwaqwa was a better proposition, then I can’t even imagine how bad life in Lesotho must have been.
Anyway, one day I got to work and was confronted with a sticky problem. The police were there and they apparently needed my help. You see as it turns out, a Lesotho illegal had died a week before in our hospital. In order to qualify for admission to our hospital she needed to be South African. Luckily her sister was the proud owner of a South African identity document and had simply lent it to her, along with her name. I assume they looked similar enough that the clerk working in admissions hadn’t noticed the picture in the book wasn’t that of the patient. More likely she simply didn’t check. The problem was that the patient had been declared dead by the doctor on call that particular night. Or rather the patient’s sister and her ID had been declared dead. At that stage no one yet knew who the patient was. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
March 25th, 2011 by GruntDoc in True Stories
Tags: Disgusting, Dislocated Shoulder, Emergency, Emergency Medicine, Gross, Medical Student, Shoulder Reduction
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We have (mostly) non-EM studs rotate through our ED on their sometimes mandatory, sometimes killing a month elective ED tour. There is little reason for EM destined students to rotate in our place, as we don’t have a residency and we’re not part of the club of EM residency directors ( i.e. letter of rec writers). So, usually not EM hard chargers. Nothing wrong with that, but they’re not my cuppa tea.
Today’s lesson: shoulder reduction for the non-EM Stud, and for me in What We Do Isn’t Usual.
As is our norm, after a thorough Hx, PE, Xrays and Time Out, was in on a 2 doc reduction; One does the sedation, one the reduction. I don’t typically have students follow me: I don’t dislike the students, but I don’t have them. Personal preference.
Today, a shoulder reduction. My colleagues’ student. Not destined for a life in the ED (already matched, not in a remotely EM specialty). My colleague is on the sedation, and I’m on the reduction. I, after discussing the technique, in my presence and under my direction, allowed the stud the first attempt at reduction after sedation. No go. Good effort, not enough muscle. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
March 25th, 2011 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Advantages, Breast Cancer, Message Board, NYT, Oncology, Personal Attacks, Special Treatment, Vitriol
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A Well Blog post series in the NY Times, written by Peter Bach, MD, an attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC, chronicle’s his experiences with his wife’s diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer.
As painful as it was to read of Bach’s wife’s breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, I found reading the comments section on the first few posts to be equally difficult. The comments ranged from supportive to downright vitriolic, as patients took the opportunity to vent at doctors and a medical system that they perceive gave Bach’s wife better access to treatment than theirs. The bitterness that comes through these comments is astonishing, but should not be. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog That Ate Manhattan*
March 24th, 2011 by KerriSparling in True Stories
Tags: Advocacy, Blogging, Diabetes, Diabetes Camp, JDRF, Kerri
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As a kid, I wasn’t an advocate for type 1 diabetes. I was a kid. I went to diabetes camp (CBC 4 LIFE) but that was the extent of my involvement with any kind of diabetes community. It wasn’t until I was out of college and feeling like I existed on a diabetes island that I began to crave interaction with and understanding from other people with diabetes. So, at Chris’ suggestion, I started a blaaaaaagh and everything just got all sorts of exciting. Namely, I had finally connected with other people living with diabetes. And it felt gooooood.
Now that there is an established online community for people with diabetes (PWDs, caregivers, and loved ones alike), there are a lot of opportunities for engagement and advocacy. The DOC isn’t limited to adults living with diabetes; there are blogs written by parents of CWD, spouses and significant others of PWD, and even doctors who care for PWD. And it’s not even limited to people who are interacting online – the diabetes community is offline, and on. And after meeting with the new CEO of the JDRF, Jeffrey Brewer, last week in DC, I realized once again that we’re all in this together. This guy gets it. His kid has diabetes, making me realize that Jeffrey is just like my mother in that he wants what is best for his child. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
