ndexing Title:         DCHUA’s Medical Anecdotal Report [05-4]

 MAR Title:     How Many Pebbles for So Many Birds?

 Date of Medical Observation:     May 6, 2005

 Narration:

 It was my tour of duty, the first with that of a new group of interns and clerks.  How best to teach and orient them but through discussing actual patients as they came in?  Two birds with one stone, as long as the patient: physician ratio remained low.

 So time went by with some forgettable minor consultations until a 28-year-old male was carried into the Emergency Room in pain, having fallen off the 3rd floor of a construction site.  I proceeded in directing and demonstrating what need be done on such trauma patients.  Primary and secondary surveys ruled-out severe injuries that needed immediate intervention to the head, chest, abdomen and bones.  I directed the listing of patient data at the triage area to the companion of the patient, an intramuscular injection of analgesic to the nurse, a request for a chest x-ray to a medical student, and the attachment of a monitoring sheet to the others.  A non-bleeding laceration could be addressed later, when I become surer of his stable condition.

 I turned my attention to another stretcher, expecting to receive normal radiogram results soon.  In a few minutes, the disgruntled companion lifted the patient back out of the ER, complaining that the proper attention was not being given to the needs of his patient.