My first ward call
My first ward call was both exciting and scary.
Highlight:
I put in my first successful nasogastric tube in a catatonic patient who wasn't swallowing for me! In fact, I was a bit too successful and inserted it all the way to the duodenum and had to pull it back 5 cm. But still, it worked!
Lowlight:
My first patient death.
She was an elderly lady with a Not For Resus order, and I was called to see her because her breathing was very laboured and very wet. I told the nurse to cut down the subcutaneous fluids, but later the nurse came back and said she turned it off, because this lady was drowning. I wrote up some hyosine but by the time we went to check on her, she took her last gasp, and died.
I had to feel her already cold and clammy hand for a pulse, and listen to her heart and lungs. Nothing. And when I opened her eyes, they were already cloudy like the ones we got down in the anatomy lab.
I was quite shaken by the experience and went down to ED to mope for a while, where there were other doctors. Oh, and I was also the only doctor on the medical and surgical wards so I had to manage it all. I had to call the daughter to break the bad news and also fill out a life extinct form.
So yeah, exhilarating and sad night all in one!
Highlight:
I put in my first successful nasogastric tube in a catatonic patient who wasn't swallowing for me! In fact, I was a bit too successful and inserted it all the way to the duodenum and had to pull it back 5 cm. But still, it worked!
Lowlight:
My first patient death.
She was an elderly lady with a Not For Resus order, and I was called to see her because her breathing was very laboured and very wet. I told the nurse to cut down the subcutaneous fluids, but later the nurse came back and said she turned it off, because this lady was drowning. I wrote up some hyosine but by the time we went to check on her, she took her last gasp, and died.
I had to feel her already cold and clammy hand for a pulse, and listen to her heart and lungs. Nothing. And when I opened her eyes, they were already cloudy like the ones we got down in the anatomy lab.
I was quite shaken by the experience and went down to ED to mope for a while, where there were other doctors. Oh, and I was also the only doctor on the medical and surgical wards so I had to manage it all. I had to call the daughter to break the bad news and also fill out a life extinct form.
So yeah, exhilarating and sad night all in one!