Dr. Joel Higgs was in the ER on-call room, trying to sleep.
It had been a long day already – three car crashes and six
drunken accidents, amongst other incidents. And it was only four
o’clock in the morning!
Dr. Higgs opened his eyes and shifted his gaze to his left
side, at the clock beside the bed. 04:03am now. It was going to be
a very long night. Lying in the slightly small bed, thoughts of his
career came into his head. Six years at medical school, two years
as a house officer and three years so far as a registrar. Thoughts
of other restless nights in the on-call room flooded his tired
mind... The nervous night before his last big surgical exam…
New Year’s Eve and Halloween, year after year… His
last birthday, spent operating on that poor kid…
After what seemed an age, a nurse entered the room, opening
the door slowly. Dr. Higgs looked down the length of the bed at her
and frowned at the chart in her hand. It seemed that sleep would
have to wait.
Heading to the ER, he noticed his parotid gland was
salivating in anticipation of his routine coffee, and reflected
with a sense of nostalgia on the days in which he didn’t even
know what a parotid gland was. At the entrance to the ER he looked
about for the nurse who had summoned him. "Over here, Joel", he
heard her call from across the room. The clock on the wall read
04:53.
Nurse Anne passed Dr. Higgs a coffee, and as he smelt its
warm fragrance he couldn’t help but smile. At least the staff
was friendly and the coffee was good. Dr. Higgs looked up at the
patient before him. Mr. Smith, 22years old, appeared to have
dislocated his shoulder during a drunken wrestle with his brother,
who sat penitently on the chair in the corner. The good doctor
looked down at his chart again and his pupils constricted as he
tried to focus on the scratch-like handwriting before him. Mr.
Smith was in no position to be giving consent for treatment. Nor
was his brother, who was in all fairness at least trying to act
sober. It was agreed that they would wait another hour to call Mr.
Smith’s parents to explain the situation and seek consent.
Mr. Smith would probably sleep until then anyway. Dr. Higgs heard
the clock tick over – 05:00. He looked down again and then to
his side, where the two Mr. Smiths were. He wasn’t the only
one in for a rough night!
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