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One of the sad things you get to see in the ICU all the time is trauma cases...and the one I am going to tell you is not going to be any different. 4am in the morning, someone drives on the road, heading back home after a party, gets himself involved in a car accident. Arrived in the emergency department via ambulance, he is drowsy, low GCS score and is electively intubated. Prior to intubation, you smell this strong breath of alcohol, you ask yourself, " Shit, why did this fellow drunk himself, drove and endangered the lives of others for his own satisfaction and gradification" Most of the time, many of us wound be wondering that this fellow decided to disturb us in the middle of the night. Disturb applies to the paramedics who brought him here, the nurses who took care for him, and doctors who attended to him. Not to mention, the lady at the registration counter has to look for his IC and register him as a patient in the hospital. Was all these necessary if a person decided to be resposible about his own actions? Of course, he ended up in the surgical team and I saw him the next morning in the ICU. He had already suffered a head concussion, a liver laceration, splenic injury and possibality a lung contusion. We were all concerned about the patient in ICU, but no one else more more concerned that anyone of us...the mother. I can still remember how she gazed at me, asking how his son was, and begging down to her news to our team to save his son. There was only so much we could do. We have already done 3 laparotomies for the past few days, spleenectomy, packed the liver, arrested bleeding arising from the abdomen, antibiotics, and increased ventilator settings etc. Then he had a severe lung infection and going towards sepsis...and started having acute renal failure. We had to finally break the silence to the family after almost a week. The prognosis was not very encouraging...We always give hope to the family, and preparing them for the worst. That is a great challenge for many of us in the Surgical and Anaesthetic team. When I had finally broken the news to the family, everyone was sad, but no one was as sad as the mother...All she only cared was for the safety of his son...She was so heartbroken, but we offered hope to her, since he was still young. It is probably better for the family to know the truth early rather than a sudden collapse and death. Though there is always a possibality of a miracle, but in actualy fact, it does not come everyday...anyhow, we still continue to battle with his lung infection and renal failure. He is still in ICU... Perhaps one should wonder...would any of this have happend if he decided to go home earlier and not booze away until the early hours of morning. Who sufferes the most? The patient? or the mother? Post a comment in response: |
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