No regrets ...No regrets at all

In an Iraqi Medical ward …

'Thank Allah we now know what caused his death'

This was my attending's way of consoling the family of the deceased just minutes after he announced him dead

I was standing next to him thinking 'bloody hell!  What kinda statement is that? I know I've been practicing for less than a year but its common sense. Ok I do agree that the guy is dead from a medical disease with some fancy name but if you are so happy that u found out about it …his family might not share the same enthusiasm….  right !?'

I keep on hearing how insensitive doctors are but that day I witnessed it myself …. You know what I can't blame him…10 years ago when he was a med student  breaking bad news wasn’t part of the syllabus I guess but again  this doesn’t completely give an excuse for how stupidly he handled it…

A positive thing about this? Well the whole 'you son is dead ' thing is not that easy for me and I dont think I will be anytime soon but that day I felt good about ma self...at least I'm not as bad as him :P

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In an Iraqi ER….

'He's bleeding into his brain '

'No he is not'

'Some med talk to prove ma point'

'Some babbling to prove his '

'I still think he needs a CT scan of his brain'

'He's got no indications for it '

Although I thought that he's killing the patient with his treatment …I couldn’t argue  with him more  ..he's not just ma attending he's got enough power to make me suffer …so I stopped

10 min later I just couldn’t I mean I felt so guilty ..so I present the case to  other ER seniors most  agree with me scientifically but no one seems to care about the patient …

Everybody is talking nowadays about 'Managed Care' , i.e you lower your expenses if you can narrow down your differential diagnosis with the least number of tests…well let me tell you ma opinion this is not Managed care its ' Damaged care '

You wanna know what happened next …

I got busy with other patients and my attending discharged the guy…yes he discharged him home ….

Well great ….good for the hospital

'sigh'

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In the Medical floors again !...

'Would you leave the books for a sec? Do you know the 'shahroora'

'An old actress??'

'How come they're making an entire series about her she was a s** bag….'.

He kept on talking for about half an hour or so

'Excuse me doctor' this was the 'rescue' nurse :P 'you have a new admission'

'Thank Allah… rescue I thought so I stood up to go see the patient'

'Where are you going?'

'To …lets see M.KALAD'

'He's been already checked at the ER… Let me tell you something …always put yourself above the patients. Take care of your health'

'I'm …fine' seriously I was fine  

Thank god he followed his own advice, he left the ward to sleep on duty!! .. you know he did me and the patients a huge favor the first 6 hours of the duty was horrible  because of him , well at least partly!!!