Ikey's Ideas

On ‘Duty Lenses’

What a difference a day can make.

The most memorable patient from Monday’s Trauma duty was a 20 year old female, brought in for a stab wound to the abdomen. Scared, in pain and disoriented, the woman was brought in by her drunk husband, only to be abandoned once she had the Trauma team’s attention. This began a long list of irritating inconveniences that marked this patient as the most problematic of the night. Without a bantay, without any money, without the benefit of a working x-ray in PGH that night, in the heat and stench of the ER, the patient made life more difficult for us when she adamantly refused to be lined or to be given free antibiotics and insisted on going home. In the midst of the trauma backlog, short handed and short tempered, I had a hard time seeing the plight of this patient (whose stab wound was actually just a superficial abrasion) whom we were trying to help without any cooperation from her. Instead, her dim-witted stare, missing teeth and filthy clothing just added to my irritation and impatience. Come morning, when we endorsed our backlogged cases to the next duty team, I was all too happy to pass on her problems to someone else.

Today, I saw her again in the wards. Rejuvenated by a true post-duty rest day, I suddenly saw her for what she really was—a frightened, lonely, confused girl who had just survived a harrowing experience in the ER. There were probably times two nights ago when she felt as if she may die, and the closest companions she had were the doctors she had never met before, trying to stick her with needles and probe her body in the pursuit of a diagnosis she could never understand. She remembered me, and sheepishly apologized for being difficult in the ER. It left me at a loss of words. Should she really have had to apologize? Should I have apologized to her? All I could think of to say was that I was glad she was getting better, and quietly resolved to be more patient next time around. It’s amazing how my point of view changed after a chance to rest.

The biggest tests we face in patient care are often unrelated to the actual afflictions we try to treat. Many times our success as doctors (to be) comes down to interpersonal skills—the ability to associate compassionately and professionally with our patients in the most trying of circumstances. It’s one of those things that you just can’t learn any other way than by first hand experience.

Duty calls again tomorrow. Here’s to another chance to become a better version of myself.