Indexing Title: NALUDINOs Medical Anecdotal Report [04-8]

MAR Title: The Little Angel That Could

Date of Medical Observation:   September 2004

Narration:

I was the neurosurgery rotator when I encountered this patient. She is a 3-year-old girl, brought in at the surgery emergency room by her parents who narrated how their one and only child landed on her head after falling from a height of 6 feet.

At the emergency room, the patient was drowsy and irritable. The skull x-ray we requested showed that she had a fracture on the parietooccipital area, right. We proceeded with a cranial CT-scan and we did not like what we saw. The little girl had intracerebral hematoma.

I immediately referred the patient to our consultant who decided to operate on the patient at the soonest possible time. The patient subsequently underwent open reduction with evacuation of hematoma.

Postoperatively, although I was hoping that the patient would pull through, I was still afraid that this patient would not make it. I would not want to be the one who would have to tell their parents any sad news.

The patient eventually proved everyone wrong. She made a full recovery and was discharged with no residual effects.

Insights (Physical, Psychosocial, Ethical) (Discovery, Stimulus, Reinforcements)

            Sometimes when presented with a grave situation, we get overwhelmed. This became almost the case. When the child came in with a history of trauma, coupled with the ancillary procedures done. My immediate question was, “Could we do something for this child?” Weighing the risks the consultant felt that we could and that we should.

            It is during times like these that we realize that we have to learn new things. Although we are training to be general surgeons, we must be able to recognize cases such as these and be able to do something about it. With the proper training and guidance we could learn to do simple neurosurgical cases.