Dub-trub

"Ahhh, there's flies in my sterile field." Said the super-doctor as she finished inserting the central line. Rural medicine!

Medicine in the country never ceases to be amazing. Actually that's not true. Myself and my colleague were lamenting how few exciting things had happened over the past few days.

Let me rephrase then. Medicine in the country never ceases, amazing!

The hospital I reside in is pretty small, you can count the number of inpatients on yours or hand most of the time. So when the infrequent occurrence of a proper emergency happens, it gets interesting.

Today we had a full blown resus. The kind where the already dodgy patient is going downhill fast and the ambos radio ahead for you to get your dancing shoes on. It was intense, though as usual I didn't contribute much, not that I was required. The team managed to get the guy back and stable enough.

Of course the unthinkable would happen and the ambos brought in another priority case. Fortunately medstar had arrived and was already working on the first guy, which freed up some of the other doctors. Both patients ultimately got choppered to town, still alive. As well as a third patient from the next town over. A very busy day.

This all happened in the middle of the afternoon. And as I've said previously. There aren't emergency doctors, the people who answer the door are the local GPs. They are all pretty competent though and brilliant general practitioners. Unfortunately if you happen to pull four doctors out of the consulting rooms in order to keep someone alive, the regular GP patients tend to get a little angsty. It's almost as if some people are devoid of empathy.

So that was my afternoon. I did get to see some educational stuff, including a rapid sequence induction, arterial and central line insertion and external pacing. Although I feel bad for learning from other peoples misery, best to be prepared in case I ever end up calling the shots and its one of your lives on the table.

I hope not to suck.