The people treating Ebola patients should be volunteers

Conditions
November 7, 2014

I was recently injecting anesthetic into a boil for incision and drainage. The abscess swelled and returned an arcing spray of lidocaine laden with blood and pus, soaking the thigh of my cotton scrub pants. A cheap plastic gown would have protected me — I usually wear one. But I couldn’t find one and had other tasks waiting. My mind went to Ebola and exposed nurse necks.

What if this were …

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The people treating Ebola patients should be volunteers

Secrets of the VA that aren’t being reported

Physician
June 11, 2014

I’ve worked at a few VA medical centers, including four years at the Phoenix VA. I’d like to report something missed in the media storm. Before spilling secrets, though, I’ll dispense with the non-secrets. Everyone who has entered a VA hospital knows:

1. The system is overwhelmed. While we might have planned for the increasing needs of aging Vietnam-era vets, I doubt anyone predicted two long wars or the number of …

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Secrets of the VA that aren’t being reported

Can I do residency again in a better rested environment?

Education
October 13, 2011

“How are residents supposed to prepare for real life as a surgeon if they can’t even work twenty-four hours straight now?”

I hear this complaint about once a month from a someone trained in the Golden Age of hazing. Outside of anecdote, we’ll never know if surgeons are better trained now or twenty years ago, or fifty. But it’s too painful to imagine every-other-night-call wasn’t of critical importance.

Residency resembles the …

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Can I do residency again in a better rested environment?

If I could pick patients, they would be Native American Guatemalans

Physician
July 25, 2011

Spent a sweaty week operating in a hilltop Hospital Nacional in Guatemala a while back.

A patient gave me a hat in thanks for her surgery.  It’s a full-brimmed canvas safari number – I’m sure Hemingway shot a rhino in one.  I’m just mature enough now to value sun protection and always grateful, sometimes to the point of pain, for gifts from those who have almost nothing.  I was also …

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If I could pick patients, they would be Native American Guatemalans