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One of my favourite stories from training:
I was a resident doing a rotation in orthopedics. it was about 11 p.m., and the ER called me to say they had a patient en route that had been run over by a train, and had bilateral leg amputations. 1/5
I was a resident doing a rotation in orthopedics. it was about 11 p.m., and the ER called me to say they had a patient en route that had been run over by a train, and had bilateral leg amputations. 1/5
I knew the surgeon and chief resident were in the OR working on the last case of a very long OR day. I didn't want them to go home and leave me alone with this patient so I went to the OR and told them what was coming in. They did not look thrilled. 2/5
I headed down to the ER, where the team was waiting in the trauma room with full gear on. We waited. The orthopedic surgeon sauntered in. "Nice outfits," he said. About half an hour went by, and no patient. 3/5
Someone walked in and said, "Dispatch called, patient might not have amputations, but bilateral femur fractures instead." (Are amputations a tricky diagnosis to make?). The surgeon was growing impatient. 4/5
Finally, the patient was wheeled in. Drunk, swearing, with legs completely intact. The surgeon looked at her, then looked at us, then looked at the ambulance crew, smiled and said, "I THOUGHT SHE'D BE SHORTER"... and walked out. /end
end+1/ This same surgeon once wrote a consult letter 5 words long. "LEG BONE BROKE. WILL FIX."
end+2/ He also once went to see a patient he'd operated on on the ward. The patient thought he was the maintenance guy there to fix the TV, so he told him the TV was broken. The surgeon fixed the TV. The patient would then not believe that he was his surgeon.
