The night of living dead

From duty...

To most nonmedical personnel, this is just two words with very little meaning when used together. At best, they think what I used to think when I was in 2nd year med school, that one just came from the hospital.

However, in the medical world, these two words evoke emotions that span the gamut of relief to downright rage. Relief that another 24 hours duty has passed and you didn't visit hell during that duty. Rage that your duty just keeps on going and going and going...despite being from duty status.

Last night was an example of a brief trip to hell. The duty started innocently enough during the morning hours with just the usual mix of nutcases and real ER cases. But once twilight came, the trip started. Patients started coming in ignoring the all important message of the surgeon general to not drink and drive.

The first case was a father, having his son as a passenger, crashing their scooter into a parked truck. And of course being the macho man that he was, he didn't wear his helmet. Once brought to the ER, he kept asking where he was. When I told him he was in the hospital and geve him the name of the municipality, he couldn't even remember the municipality despite his being a resident there. The sad part was that the guy escaping with a few lacerations while the entire arm of his son being covered with deep abrasions.

This was followed by another guy who decided to get on his motor bike despite being falling down drunk. The truly ironic part is that his brother who wasn't as drunk deciding to join him on his joy ride. Sadly, the joy ride ended in his hitting a guardrail on the bridge and him flying through the air to the mass of metal near the bridge. While this was happening, a lot of people came over not to help the poor sod but to rob him. Good thing a good samaritan tricycle driver decided to bring him and his brother to the ER. When they got there, parts of his brain were already oozing out of his skull fractures and he was already dead on arrival.

The brother on the other hand escaped with a few lacerations but had to be treated outside the ER because he didn't want to be in the room where his brother was pronounced.

This was followed by another drunken driver incident only this time it was the victim that was the patient. The poor guy just going to church when this trio of drunks decided to take the scooter out for a spin. End result, they slammed their beloved vehicle on the tricycle of the churchgoer rendering him unconscious and his wife badly shaken up. The only good thing about the whole thing is that both of them are alive although still under observation to see if any brain damage occurred.

Of course, in between these gruesome cases were still some of the usual ER cases like asthma and the like.

It is a a good thing that morning came and the night ended. From duty at last!