The last post was for the minor things that happen.
Major things happen just like in the movies. A patient might be found not breathing or without heart beat. Code Blue is announced over the PA system and the team doctors rush to resuscitate the patient.
All sorts of wires will be connected to the patient monitoring his heart rate, oxygen levels, ECG rhythms etc. CPR will be started with the most junior doctor jumping on top of the patient and pumping the chest. To give the uninitiated a better idea, CPR is actually more tiring than sex. The danger of the resuscitator collapsing himself is a real possiblity.
The second most junior doctor will see if there is a need to stick a tube down the patient's throat to help the patient breathe. By this time, the senior doctor would have arrived and will be looking through the patient's record to determine the cause. Although from the outside this whole senario looks like what army terms as operation cluster f**k, it is actually very well orchestrated and organised. There is hierarchy to be maintained. No one oversteps his boundaries. Sometimes we manage to get a heartbeat back. Often we don't. And when we don't, there isn't that dramatic "Let's call it. Time of death 0400hrs". (Duh! that's in the movies).
It is a quiet affair, certifying death......
human dignity is not measured by the length of one's life but by something else that's defineable only by the person living it.
ReplyDeletei truncated the post becoz on reflection, end of life decisions is too big a topic. for now, lets just rant about night calls.
ReplyDeleteDeath is overrated.
ReplyDeleteyes, discussions of this nature is heavy and enough to stop me working to the detriment of the living, who are the ones in need of help.
ReplyDeletebut the demons used to keep me up on call-free nights though...
Rise from the dead....guaranteed....
ReplyDelete