One night cycle

A road traffic accident which resulted in a mini mass casualty. The rider, a young lad losing his leg as a result. Pillion ridder had a bad rami pelvic fracture. The ones in the car escaped with minor injuries. Yet, despite giving them all the explanation and care that they needed, they were still in for a complaint. Not surprisingly, it was the ones who escaped with relatively minor injuries. Yet, my thoughts were on those who were badly injured instead of the complaint coming up against us.  How are they going to cope? How would they live on?

I met the family who came for the half-body (literally) of their loved one who was being found in the river that day. Memories of bodies being found in ECP came back. It made me reflect on how short one's life is and how easily it or any body part can be taken away. Indeed, whatever we take for granted now may not be there the next moment. Truly like a flower which fades away, man's existence can be taken away by the flink of an eye.

A HHS emergency that was unforgivably missed due to atypical presentations. Alarm bells kept ringing and ringing inside me the more I looked through his case and examined him myself. It just amazes me that each time I studied something, that particular case would be brought to my care during the following days. I just read through a case study on a hyperglycaemic emergency and so, I knew, just knew that it is so, especially when the blood results were out and the signs just highlighted itself in red big flags. Quickly, I did more tests to confirm it and personally handed the case over to the managing team upstairs to start emergency treatment. I followed through his case. Thank God for his good recovery so far :)

Early in my second night, we were informed by our boss that a VIP was most probably coming in for treatment. And viola, the VIP came right into my area which I was assigned to that very day. This was in the midst of an exceptionally busy day with a flood of patients. Basic principles of emergency medicine still followed and I was glad that none of us dropped all that we were doing right then to attend to the VIP stat. Sick ones were still seen and managed first. That is the beauty of emergency medicine :)

And then, some drama that unfolded in the waiting area when a patient tried to attack my colleague. This was followed by another drama of an alcoholic intoxicated man who wanted to absorn from his head injury protocol stay. Thank God for wonderful partners that day who were both experienced and caring in how they handed the case. I was really impressed by their professionalism and bravery!

These are just some of the happenings in my eventful night cycle. There are still many more stories of how diagnosis/management were disagreed and a wonderful discussion that followed through with my partner that day. And helping my colleague through a challenging time because of something she had missed in the care of her patient. All in all, though tired and coming back with a lot more to read up on, I was happy. Happy, because I knew that I had done the best for my patients under my care. Happy because past experiences had made me more humble and understanding in my dealings with misdiagnosis/poorly managed plans. Happy, because God answered my prayers for the opportunity to care and to regain back the clinical acumen integrated together with human touch. And yes, coming out wiser and more mature at the end of it all.