Cronica del dia 8 de junio

Today was mouth-opening. I went to the hospital with a positive attitude, ready to learn and help; you heard me yesterday. Dr. Martinez took 3 med students and I to a conference room where each discussed a case. They had to read their data and medical history, physical state and complications; then they had to come up with ways to improve the state of patients using surgery as the last resource. There was a case of patient with gall stone symptoms and a wound infection from a previous operation a partial gall bladder removal. It was concluded that the patient still had gall stones in the leftover of gall bladder; thus, the symptoms; and the infection of the wound through where the caterer was inserted occurred due to negligence. Another case was a male patient with a hernia in left lower abdominal part; the doctor discussed the different types of hernias mostly probable for this case. What to do with this patient was left pending once the intern became familiarized with hernias. The last case had to do with a young woman who had a mild to severe pain in the upper part of the abdomen. She was taken to emergency on Friday; she was given pain medicine and allowed to go home. Then, 6hrs later her pain was severe and was interned. Her case was considered grave after realizing that she had had a stomach perforation long ago, the perforation went through the pleural cavity and caused inflammation due to excess fluid in the cavity. The internal wound was infected, and it had now penetrated the lung pleural space. The med student reported breathing problems which at the moment seemed to be explained in the diagnosis. Her platelet number was low and she was weak, pale, and showed jaundice as well. Liver had shown damage. I had to be present when the doctor told the family of this girl that she was in a severe state and had to be taken to intensive care. However, I followed the doctor personally to the intensive care center and there were no available beds. The family was told this. It was hard! Even though I see how bad this case is, in my perspective, the doctor was direct but the family did not fully take it as serious as it actually is. The infection has gone through most of her body and organs! And there is no bed for her in intensive care; I pray she gets the attention she needs even though it’s somewhat late. On the other hand, that was not everything today. A35 year old man died. I saw him after 4min of being dead; with his eyes opened staring at nowhere, with a stiff body, his lungs seemed to be holding the air still because his chest was pumped up. He passed away from appendicitis; I believe there was some colon problem as well. The doctor told me that he had been diagnosed too late. Dr. Martinez seem worried for like 3hrs about this case; he told me that he was mostly worried about the family because they had come this morning to see the patient and they were denied the entrance. The family yelled and got violent at one of the interns saying what a bad job they were doing. Two hours after they left, he was announced dead. After this harrowing moment, I felt like I wanted to faint for a second; then I felt nauseous for the rest of the day. I went to the clinic of urgent care after taking air with Dr. Martinez; the things I saw were so bloody such as dog bites, anesthesia injections to wounds, burns, knits to little kids, diabetic feet, and removal of toe nails. All these were painful to the patients; however, I don’t thing I could’ve seen anything worst today. Then I was released from med hell.