An ER Incident

What would you if you walked into the ER at the beginning of your shift  and found your intern colleague on the exam table, on all fours, just as in the above image, albeit wearing a white coat?

Let me back off a little bit...

This was a few years back, when I was doing my internship/house surgeoncy in India. Latha, my friend, was posted in the ER and I was supposed to take over her shift at 600 pm.

Right before I walked in, an elderly gentleman was brought into the ER. He was bitten by a snake.

"What did the snake look like?", Latha had asked in an effort to determine whether it was a poisonous one, which would require treatment with antivenom.

I guess they anticipated this question. The answer came in the form of writhing reptile, very much alive, dropped on the floor from a plastic bag, by patient's son, who was heard exclaiming at the same instant "Sorry, I thought the snake was dead!"

Latha, perched right on top of the table.

Did I have the presence of mind to deal with this situation when I walked in ?

Nope.

The minute I saw the snake, I let out a scream and jumped on top of the same table, and there was barely any space for the two of us.

Thankfully, the security folks were soon in, they took care of the issue.  The snake, we later found out  was just Coluber mucosus, or the common rat snake/ chera, a nonvenomous one.

Fever Dream

Jake was running a high fever, and Amma was genuinely concerned. I was still in Medschool, doing my internship at that time, and being the only doc around the block, she wanted me to have a look.

Let me just back off a bit. Jake is my kid brother. Well, he's not a kid anymore, but the 10 years age gap between us always make me feel he's just a kid. During my medschool days, he was the guinee pig I used to practise on. He'd lie still on the bed while I palpated his belly looking for the enlarged organs, percussed his chest trying to discern a resonant note from the dull, auscultated his chest with my black Littmann steth for the breath sounds and the rhythmic lub-dup of his heart. He used to thoroughly enjoy those sessions, mainly because he could get a break from his homework and studies while I tried to hone my clinical skills.

When I saw Jake, he was sleeping, all curled up in his bed. His cheeks were flushed and droplets of sweat glistened on his forehead. I was in a hurry, with an exam next day, and I just shook him awake..

Me: Eda, onnu ezhnneette (Jake, Wake up!)

Jake (startled): Ayyo..Enthina? ( OMG, What for?)

Me: Eda, Amma wants me to examine you.. Nee onnu nere kidanne( Lie down straight)

Jake(with a terrified look onhis face): Are you sure? Have you done this before?

Me(confused at his question): What do you mean? Nee vegam onnu nere kidanne, njan steth vechu kelkkatte (Let me just listen to your chest)

Jake: Athu veno? (Are you sure you wanna do that?)

Me: Jake, Don’t mess with me. I’m busy now. Let me just have a look.

Jake: How long is it gonna take?

Me( getting impatient): Just a couple of minutes.

And then the weirdest thing happened.Jake jumped out of his bed, pushed me aside and started crying at the top of his voice..

Jake: Ayyooo, Ammaaaa ..Papaa..Odi vayo ( Dad! Mom!, Help me!!)

Papa was dozing off in his armchair, Amma was in the kitchen. Hearing Jake shouting for help, they rushed to his bedroom.

Amma and Papa: Entha Mone, enthu pattiyeda?( What’s wrong Son?)

Jake: Please get some one else to do my HEAD TRANSPLANT...Someone with more experience than Molly chechi!!! I may die from the surgery.

We were dumbstruck. It took a while for us to decipher what had happened, and when we did we couldn’t stop laughing...Apparently Jake was in the middle of a dream, where he was supposed to have an extremely complicated procedure called ‘head transplant’ for his lethal illness. When I came into his room, he thought I was gonna do the surgery, and having had a first hand experience of my skills, poor Jake was terrified.

Well, this is just one of the weirdest dreams Jake has had, I'll blog more on the the 'hanging fan' and the 'dead friend' episodes later.

Bye for Now!