It usually starts with the loud cries of one or two ladies which you can hear even if you are about 50 feet away from the site of incidence. Then you can see a gathering slowly building up around the bed from where the cries had originated. A doctor, a Nurse, one or two Interns can also be seen around the vicinity of the scene with emotion-less faces engaged in some kind of activity like giving a Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) or giving electric shocks to the patient with a Defibrillator or giving instructions to the Nurse which usually includes the words “Atropine” and “Adrenaline”. Then after a few minutes of hard work, the Doctor stops the CPR, looks at the monitor displaying straight lines with intermittent feeble sine waves. and examines the chest and the eyes of the patient. Then he walks out of the ward like a defeated warrior with his head held down and asking one of the male bystanders to accompany him. After explaining the reason why such interventions were done in the last one hour, the doctor declares that the patient is “no more”.
Night Duty Duel with an Alcohol Withdrawal Patient
Funny things can happen in the night at hospitals which the duty doctor has to attend. I was the doctor on duty that night when the patient suffering from “acute alcohol withdrawals” was causing all kinds of trouble one could possibly imagine. The story goes this way : When the phone rang, I woke up … Read more