Graveyard Shift
Night 4 of the graveyard shift. I'm half way through. Surviving, but, boy, am I looking forward to going back to more humane working hours.
Just got back from an emergency. Massive gastrointestinal bleed. Received a page at 2:02 am. Ran to the scene and gasped at what I saw. A middle-aged man lying in a pool of his own blood. There was blood everywhere. He had vomited a huge amount of fresh clotted blood and passed fresh blood per rectum. His blood pressure fell to 60/30 (normal being around 120/60)and he had a haemoglobin of 61 (lower limit of normal = 130). It was like a scene out of a horror movie. Amazing thing was that he was still conscious and talking! We cannulated him and started fluid resuscitation with 2 units of O- blood stat. Blood pressure improved and held at around 130 systolic. Yikes! I've had to attend to GI bleeds, but not one of that magnitude! Thank God he's gonna make it.
Okay, no more dramas tonight, please. One like this is plenty!
Is it "Dunedin Hospital's Annual Bleed Night" tonight, or something? Coz I wasn't told!
Since I came on tonight, there's been one massive GI bleed and two unresolving epistaxis (nosebleed) cases admitted into hospital. It's funny how things sometimes happen in clusters. Like tonight is bleed night. I remember a while back it was "faecal impaction with overflow" day (it's when someone's so constipated that you have an overflow of faeces, which can be misdiagnosed as diarrhoea), then there was Sepsis Day, etc. I'm probably exaggerating a little, coz 3 cases of bleeding probably doesn't constitute an epidemic, but tonight certainly has a "theme" or "flavour", if you may, of bleeds. I hope they don't gimme beetroot or strawberry youghurt or anything red in my packed meal... let's see... GREAT! Meadow Fresh Strawberry Yoghurt! The irony!
-vK-
Just got back from an emergency. Massive gastrointestinal bleed. Received a page at 2:02 am. Ran to the scene and gasped at what I saw. A middle-aged man lying in a pool of his own blood. There was blood everywhere. He had vomited a huge amount of fresh clotted blood and passed fresh blood per rectum. His blood pressure fell to 60/30 (normal being around 120/60)and he had a haemoglobin of 61 (lower limit of normal = 130). It was like a scene out of a horror movie. Amazing thing was that he was still conscious and talking! We cannulated him and started fluid resuscitation with 2 units of O- blood stat. Blood pressure improved and held at around 130 systolic. Yikes! I've had to attend to GI bleeds, but not one of that magnitude! Thank God he's gonna make it.
Okay, no more dramas tonight, please. One like this is plenty!
Is it "Dunedin Hospital's Annual Bleed Night" tonight, or something? Coz I wasn't told!
Since I came on tonight, there's been one massive GI bleed and two unresolving epistaxis (nosebleed) cases admitted into hospital. It's funny how things sometimes happen in clusters. Like tonight is bleed night. I remember a while back it was "faecal impaction with overflow" day (it's when someone's so constipated that you have an overflow of faeces, which can be misdiagnosed as diarrhoea), then there was Sepsis Day, etc. I'm probably exaggerating a little, coz 3 cases of bleeding probably doesn't constitute an epidemic, but tonight certainly has a "theme" or "flavour", if you may, of bleeds. I hope they don't gimme beetroot or strawberry youghurt or anything red in my packed meal... let's see... GREAT! Meadow Fresh Strawberry Yoghurt! The irony!
-vK-
posted by Waning | 3:19 AM
1 Comments:
Keep it up! Keep it up! Only a mere 3 more nights to go and u'll be BACK to the normal working hours...! ^^ Aza Aza Fighting, BaPhant!
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