This one time, at badEMfest18…

Remember that time I went to a little town (village??) called Greyton, with some friends, and had a blast? It happened again. This time, not as a student, but as a doctor. Then, Greyton enriched me. This time, it may well have changed my life. Or at least, my career. (Are they really two different

Baby-CPR: Full Circle

The first time I partook in a baby’s resuscitation was during my fourth year of medical school. It was a disaster: the wall-suction malfunctioned, the nursing staff were in the precarious business of changing shifts, and all algorithms flew out of the window.

I vowed optimistically that when I was a doctor, I would not let a baby die that way.

On Call During A Riot

Last night while on call I treated rubber bullet injuries. I treated MANY rubber bullet injuries. If you thought rubber bullets only cause bruising – well, you’d be wrong. They can penetrate. During my fourth year forensic pathology rotation, we did an autopsy on a man who died due to a rubber bullet embolism. 

A New Year’s Day On Call

I did it. Exactly a year after I started working, I did one of probably the most difficult shifts an intern can get: New Year’s Day on the surgical service.

A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard | Book Review

Medical memoirs are a dime a dozen, but I’ve never read a medic’s memoir and the title, “A Thousand Naked Strangers” is just too good to pass up. A Thousand Naked Strangers is an Atlantan’s chronicle of the decade he worked as a paramedic in the city. I’ve never really known much about Atlanta, except

Under Thy Fingers*

My phone rings while I am taking ward round.

“Doctor, you must come quickly,” says the ER nurse, “We have a stab-heart in casualty.”

And I run, like they tell you in med school to run for stabbed hearts.

Geeking Out About Lungs

I stood transfixed, with my finger deep in the girl’s chest. She was breathing easier now. With every breath, I felt soft, spongy lung tissue expand against my finger. How incredible is that, I thought. Perfect lungs doing their job. Almost ruined by the knife of a callous boyfriend. I had been slow on the

Burns Patients

They come in all shapes and sizes. Little and bigger. Some are freshly burnt, the raw and sloughing flesh tender; for others it is just one more in a long line of surgeries to restore structure and function. The scarred flesh tells stories of multiple skin grafts. IV access is a nightmare. Some of them

Wait, is that allowed?

So on call in the ED recently, I had an experience that cause me a lot of turmoil. I feel the need to post a warning to this post: it pertains to religion, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I will tolerate no Bible-bashing or ANY kind of bashing in the comments, but fair

Elective Extravaganza: Internal and ED in Malaysia

Here is a little something different for Elective Extravaganza: what happens when you realise you chose the “wrong” thing for your elective? Aziza Aini (a fellow blogger, click on over) is a third year medical student in Malaysia who, during her second year, did an elective in Internal Medicine. Although she enjoyed it, she realised