More about the ER

It is now Christmas Eve, and I am waiting for katie to fall asleep so that I can surprise her by filling up some stockings, which she is not expecting. I also got a little one for the baby. Unfortunately, I have been working a lot and so I didn't have a lot of time to put much thought into what is going into them. However, she will be surprised.
I have been wanting to write more about my experiences in the ER, because each day is just ripe with stories, humor and generally exceptional experiences. So here we go with a few....



1) Towards the end of my wednesday shift one of the attending doctors asked me if I wanted to do some suturing. I love sewing people up, so I said yes before I looked at the job. Before I knew it I was starting to sew up the ear of a 17 year old guy who had gotten smashed with a vase. As an aside to the story he dropped out of school in 9th grade and his mom was cool with that. His ear was in 5 pieces and I put it back together with 28 stitches!! It took me an hour and a half to finish it - but it only took me about 20 minutes to realize that if he wanted a normal looking ear that he was going to need a plastic surgeon.

2) Similar to case #1 - a 19 year old who had cut through his thigh with a circular saw..... down to the muscles. I was asked to sew it up -and again, I said yes, because I like to do that kind of stuff. This took 12 stitches and 12 staples on the skin. Interestingly, this young man had just come across the border from Chiapas Mexico, which is an interesting place. Apparently it is very beautiful located in the southern most part of mexico near guatemala. Also, it is a place of socialist revolution and persecution of Christians.
Anyway, the stitching looked good and although I had a runny nose that day, my shield mask kept me from dripping in the wound. Despite this he came back with an infected leg. He had not prescribed the antibiotics we had given. Apparently he didn't have the money even though we had purposely given him a prescription that costs only $4 at WalMart even if you don't have insurance.
3. A patient had an MI (heart attack) right before my very eyes. The patient was brought into the cardiac room of the ED with a story suspicious of stuttering chest pain. Oxygen, aspirin and sublingual nitroglycerin were ordered. As I walked into the room the patient had just been given the meds and her blood pressure dropped and she became white clutching at her chest. The EKG done before I was in the room showed some suspicion for an MI. The EKG that we ordered right away confirmed it - huge ST elevations, what we call "Tombstones". Anyways, she was taken to the cath lab to be stented within 20 minutes.



More to follow..... Hope Christmas is great for everyone.