It all started out seeming like a pretty routine visit. My patient was in her early 30’s and had come into the emergency department for weakness, but was in no distress. As I was talking with her about her symptoms she would flash the occasional smile. It was then...
We are practicing in a time of shortage. This is something we are used to in emergency medicine. We adapt. We don’t have furosemide? Fine, I’ll use bumetanide. We don’t have LET cream? Fine, I’ll use lidocaine solution. We find work arounds for equipment we don’t have...
Dear Medicine, I love you. And, I hate you. I love you because: You fascinate me! The inner workings of the body. How it functions without me even thinking about it. The anatomy. The physiology. It’s all so grand! How the pieces integrate seamlessly. And, how we...
It all started out seeming like a pretty routine visit. My patient was in her early 30’s and had come into the emergency department for weakness, but was in no distress. As I was talking with her about her symptoms she would flash the occasional smile. It was then...
It was 5:27pm, on a Friday evening, when the pager went off. “Ugh”, said the intern, “Three minutes before shift change and the ER is paging for another admission!” I could see the dismay on his face as he dreaded the thought of staying late on yet another Friday...
