Monday, November 8, 2010

Stormy days

A hospital can be a very dark depressing place. Within its walls, people often go through horrific experiences that they never ever want to relive.

Today was just one of those days...

I saw a man diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) break down and cry.

I sat through a family meeting to inform them that their mum was dying

We later visited them in the ‘suite of death’ to make sure that she was comfortable and not in any pain

I heard an old lady crying out in sheer agony and frustration because of unbearable chronic pain;

We had to call security to neutralize our patient who was so desperate to get out that he attacked the nurses with his walking stick

A breast biopsy of our patient who was admitted due to a fall came back positive for metastatic cancer.

A disabled kid in a wheelchair got stuck in the toilet because he wasn’t used to wheeling himself around yet.

A mother not recognizing her own daughter after suffering from an ischemic stroke

And at the end of the ward round, my normally cool registrar asked for a timeout so that he could be alone and just calm himself down after today’s events...

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