Today though I had to pretend to be competent at putting casts on and sewing up pig trotters. Luckily the first year medical students enjoyed it.
Then the firies and ambos got together and put on a show, extracting a couple patients from a car wreck for our entertainment. It was actually pretty good to see a live demo of a cut up and extracation, as some times the on call doc is called out to an accident scene and has to jump on in.
I was genuinely impressed by the volunteers. All of them giving up their own time and being exposed to some pretty horrific situations on occassion. It's strange the way people volunteer for those sorts of jobs.
Just before I came here as a student here, there was a pretty significant single vehicle accident. It sounds as though the experience was pretty traumatic for everyone, as all the GPs seem to reflect on it occasionally. It involved a young man who had been in a crash. One of the docs and the intern went out to meet the ambos and retrieved him. The patient was chatty and fairly well until they were rolling him in to the hospital. The patent deteriorated rapidly and died despite best efforts. The experience was hard on a lot of the staff. Veterans of seeing the elderly move-on, but the young are always hard. Why would you choose to watch and get involved in that?
I'm not sure what my point is. Other than trauma being traumatic and coping mechanisms being of variable efficacy. I guess some people just want to make a difference.
Drive safe everyone.
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