Saturday on-call was eventful up till 5:00 a.m. That was when my imaginary guardian angels (you know what I mean) decided that my battered knees and sprained right wrist could need a bit of a break.
8:05 a.m. - Ashraf, a senior A & E doctor called in from the Red Zone. A 65-year-old man from Tampin came in with a sudden onset of breathlessness, fever and cough turned out to have a high heart enzyme which may signify a heart attack. He required a CCU bed.
12:00 p.m. - Two patients in CCU needed a central venous line each. "Well, no problemo gentlemen. Just show me your lower necks. I'd love to puncture those areas with my sharp 18 gauge needles."
5:00 p.m. - Suraya, a super bright and vibrant second-year internal medicine MO called in for a CRW bed. She wanted a bed for her 60 years old lady with fast atrial fibrillation secondary from thyrotoxicosis. Rate about 130/min, no failure symptoms. BP was holding on with no inotropes.
10:00 p.m. - The Tampin man Asyraf referred earlier with a heart attack had gotten worse. His type 1 respiratory failure had complicated by severe metabolic acidosis. It slowly poisoned his vitals organs and could push him into a comatose state within next few hours. Respiratory fatigue will be inevitable. His BP was rather low with 3 inotropic support.
No hanky panky. Time to intubate him.
"Uncle, you're not doing too well at the moment. We need to put you to sleep in order to make you feel better. Now before we do that, I want you to think of God in your heart and 'mengucap' okay."
He appeared weak and nodded quietly. He didn't fight me. He looked at me with an ounce of helplessness written all over his wide forehead.
3:00 a.m. - The uncle from Tampin now developed coffee ground colored material inside his nasogastric tube. We're dealing with a possible bleeding stomach until proven otherwise. DAMNIT. Well, at least there is no malaena.
"Okay! Let's start IV pantoprazole 80mg STAT, followed by 8mg/hour infusion. Better get in the bleeding team."
At that point, the patient's wife looked at me. "What have you done to my husband, doctor... ? He was well five hours ago. Now, he is bleeding after you connected him to that breathing machine..."
I tried to comfort her "Auntie, your husband is very ill. He might be bleeding from his tummy, but it is not related to the intubation, I will..."
I couldn't finish my sentence. She had already left the room with tears flowing heavily down her cheeks.
YOU ARE READING
On-call
General FictionTales from my experience working in hospitals. They were based on real events. ... some came from the deep darkest corner of my mind. *Stories are stand alone. Not sequels.
