All in a Day's Work

Just a quick note. We seemed to have a theme on the ortho consults we received from the E.D. today. All of them seemed to start with the history of...."Patient was at work doing ______ when they ______, and now they're in the E.D. with a broken ______."

We had a pressman working with a machine that came down on his finger, and now he's missing a piece of it and broke the little bone at the end. He's scheduled for surgery.

We had a construction worker on the roof of a building who was hit by a piece of sheet metal and knocked off of it. He has two broken wrists and a broken foot. He'll most likely be going for surgery.

We had a pipe worker who was loading a pipe into a grinder which then exploded sending a piece of metal flying that cut his hand and broke several bones in it almost cutting off a finger. He's going for surgery.

In addition to the laborers we had a number of other consults most of which were bread and butter broken bones. Tomorrow is Grand Rounds Wednesday and then two more days on the day shift before I become a vampire for a month. But, at least I get 2 days off this weekend to make the transition...!

Slippin' and a Slidin'

Last night I started a string of nights at ECMC. Aside from my resolutions for my patients from a prior entry, I made my own resolution to not be so cynical of patients and expect the best. Kind of hard to do when you read some of the presenting complaints at the top of the patient forms, but I was going to make an effort. That lasted just about 1/2 way into my shift , and then I just gave up all hope... sigh.

Anyway, last night I drove to work in a freezing rain. It was just hovering about 33 degree F. We came into an almost empty board, at 7 p.m., and we had hopes of clearing it. Then came 11 p.m. All of that freezing rain turned to ice as the temps dropped down into the high 20's. Suddenly, there were sheets of black ice everywhere. And, then the fun began.

Four employees leaving the hospital slipped and fell in the parking lot. A police officer slipped and fell on the ice - broken leg. Another police officer crashed his car into a tree when he hit a patch of ice - concussion. A young man was carrying a porcelain toilet and it slipped out of his hands - he severed one of the major arteries to his hand and cut several tendons and an important nerve. He was going to surgery.

By 1 a.m. I counted 15 patients on the board, and 8 of them were ortho consults for fractures, dislocations, etc. And the night continued on steadily busy. One little 78 year old lady produced a similar film to the one I posted here. She'd slipped and fallen on her oxygen hosing. Her bone cut through her skin, so she was considered an open fracture necessitating immediate surgery. She was on the board to go to the O.R. when I was leaving this morning.

Well, ok. Time to head off for another shift. It's Monday, so there should be quite the crowd. Will let you know what I see tomorrow! Cheers!