Day 37:
Today we were in Casualty once again. We were actually supposed to be in the lab, but when we got there this morning, they gave us a brief tour and told us we could come back after 4 when the doctor would arrive. So we decided to spend the day in Casualty, where we would hopefully be guaranteed to see some interesting cases….and we did! We saw a cast come off, many IV’s get put in and blood drawn, a failed endoscopy (we actually got kicked out of the room because the patient wasn’t cooperating and the doctor was getting angry), a colonoscopy. We also got an impromptu lesson in X-ray reading and how to spot fractures in an examination. This specific patient had completely fractured her femur near its head and after showing us how to interpret the x-ray, the doctor then showed us how the patient’s shortened and externally rotated leg indicated this fracture. After the other kid left, I was observing a bronchioscope and was actually able to assist a little! I was really only helping get the biopsied tissue into the container, but still, it’s better than nothing!
Today we were in Casualty once again. We were actually supposed to be in the lab, but when we got there this morning, they gave us a brief tour and told us we could come back after 4 when the doctor would arrive. So we decided to spend the day in Casualty, where we would hopefully be guaranteed to see some interesting cases….and we did! We saw a cast come off, many IV’s get put in and blood drawn, a failed endoscopy (we actually got kicked out of the room because the patient wasn’t cooperating and the doctor was getting angry), a colonoscopy. We also got an impromptu lesson in X-ray reading and how to spot fractures in an examination. This specific patient had completely fractured her femur near its head and after showing us how to interpret the x-ray, the doctor then showed us how the patient’s shortened and externally rotated leg indicated this fracture. After the other kid left, I was observing a bronchioscope and was actually able to assist a little! I was really only helping get the biopsied tissue into the container, but still, it’s better than nothing!
Finally, we had a death on the unit, which most definitely
dampened everyone’s mood. The patient was brought in in cardiac arrest and
without a carotid pulse, which apparently means it’s not even possible to shock
the patient to bring them back. The nurses quickly started CPR, but their
efforts didn’t last very long. Although it was hard to see, it wasn’t that much
of a surprise, as she basically came in with a look of death about her. But
even so, it’s pretty hear-breaking to see all the family members crying both at
the patient’s bedside and outside the unit.
After Casualty, I headed over to the lab to see if anything
was going on. It’s was small, but interesting to see everyone at work. I
watched one of the lab techs working with samples for a little, and then
watched another tech dissect a variety of biopsy samples, which was really
interesting! She had actually spent one year of high school in Cleveland and an
internship at Johns Hopkins, so it was fun to talk about that.
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