A resident’s first surgery: When the patient teaches the doctor
“Dr. Baban? Dr. Baban?”
His slurred voice rasps across the room, weak but insistent, cutting through chiming monitors, buzzing fluorescent lights, and the screeching pager slung next to the empty gnaw in my stomach. I freeze where I stand, one hand scratching out post-operative orders on the last emergency surgery of the day, the other midway to the nursing station phone, grasping the silenced pager. My eyes sweep over the recovery …
A resident’s first surgery: When the patient teaches the doctor
