Friday, September 14, 2007

awal ramadhan

this is the 1st day of fasting for muslims. more so for encik R who was admitted to hospital. he unfortunately swallowed something that didn't quite go down well with him during dinner the nite before. he felt a persistent pain in the neck & was seen by the ENT surgeon. using a scope to examine his throat, lo & behold, look what was retrieved from the deep recesses....

...a chunk of partially-chewed beef with some bones sticking out menacingly. because of the potential damage the bones might have inflicted on the throat, R would be kept completely fasted (ie. no food nor drinks round the clock) for the next few days to allow it to rest & heal.

by the same argument mentioned in a previous post, this could be the most expensive sup lembu in the world. but this wasn't just the event of the day......

1) the cardiac surgeon was shouting as the patient "crashed" on the operating table....

2) the neurosurgeon was extremely agitated because the scrub-nurse couldn't keep up with the surgery, & ...

3) the nursing sister & her deputy were openly at loggerheads with each other.

at the end of a long & explosive day, after the smoke had cleared, the cardiac patient survived the coronary bypass surgery, the tumour from brain of the neuro patient was successfully debulked, & the feuding nurses.......well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad, ok?

as for me, i lived through it all almost unscathed. "almost" because, in a lapse of concentration, i did administer a series of injections in the wrong sequence. fortunately, nothing untoward happened to the patient, reminding me yet again that i too am only human.

selamat berpuasa to R & all my muslim friends & colleagues.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

aren't surgeons infamously stereotyped to be short-tempered anyway?
What was the cardiac surgeon shouting at though? Scolding the patient for crashing?

All in a good day's work doc. =)

doc said...

anastasia,

there are some really nice surgeons around, but unfortunately, too few & far in-between.

the cardiac surgeon was barking orders to his harassed assistants for the resuscitation of the patient.

Jonzz said...

Wow, rough day huh.

Well, happens to the best and worst of us. Take care!

doc said...

jonzz,

thks. i've always felt that daily stresses like these actually shorten our lives.

just me said...

A body massage should be a good stress reliver...have you tried the one that sbanboy went for?

doc said...

just me,

no, i have not, but there is one that i used to go to here, except that i haven't been for some time now.

it should be time for a visit soon.

Alex Tang said...

hey, that sounds like my hospital too.

Stress shorten life? No wonder they are increasing the retirement age. According to statistics, very few people die before retirement.

doc said...

hi alex,

does that mean that retirement is more stressful than working?

stress definitely shortens life - mine, at least!!