Archive for October, 2006
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Burned Out and Without Interest
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After being on the overnight on the “fall back” night and working an extra hour I just don’t care about my current patient. She has “cotton-mouth in-and-out for a few hours” and her face “feels like it’s stretching”. Also, for about thirty minutes she feels like she’s “floating when she walks”. On top of this […]
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Eating a Gun
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Pronounced a patient dead in the field who had put a large caliber pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. By a quirk of this particular case the deceased was brought to our hospital briefly before being transported to the medical examiner in a nearby town.
This guy’s face looked like a Halloween mask. […]
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CSI: Small Town USA
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A new one on me. Delivered the bad news to a wife that her husband had died of an apparent heart attack. She didn’t cry. She told me that she could handle it and that they had, in fact, just redone their wills three days ago. She then asked me if I knew which mortuary […]
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Another Welfare Baby Success Story
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Had a 20 year old patient lie her way past our triage system last night. She was tired of waiting to be seen so told the triage nurse that she was 3 months pregnant and having heavy vaginal bleeding and abdominal pain. She was evidently quite vocal in triage and given the complaint was brought […]
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New Worst Name Ever
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I guess I can’t tell you the real name that has now taken it’s place on my “worst names of all time list” which I maintain here at work in a secret book. I keep the patient sticker and put it in the book for later discussion and proof of the name. As you can […]
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Be Mean and Nasty
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Never fails. Had the nicest patient the other day… She works 6 days a week and has most of her life. She didn’t have medical insurance and I’m not sure why… She works for a local businessman and has for years. She came in as a referral from an outside clinic with a diagnosis of […]
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A Difficult Legal Question
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What to do what to do?
You are a horribly ill though relatively young quadriplegic who recently signed a DNR/”Comfort Care Only” form and are in fact sick again with a very resistant bacterial infection. One problem, you are now suicidal.
Do I allow your prior wishes regarding the end of your life to be followed […]
