Speaking of doctors, here's a medical story I just heard on the phone. It's about a vague acquaintance of mine who is a friend of the person I was talking to. It happened today.
This woman, I'll call her V, checked in to one of the good NY hospitals for outpatient surgery, a minor hernia repair. The hernia had occurred when she gave birth to a baby who's now 8 months old. She has an older child, too. She's about 40.
The procedure was completed, but she didn't feel at all well. She felt so ill, and so weak, that her doctor decided to keep her overnight.
Her father happens to be a physician. He lives in Texas. He phoned his daughter at the hospital. She told him how dreadful she was feeling, how weak, and how frightened. She had, of course, told the staff at the hospital the same thing.
Her father, from Texas, managed to get the resident on the phone. He told him to order a "hemacrit" (I think it was) immediately. The resident said blithely, "We will, we'll do one tomorrow morning." The father shouted I AM TELLING YOU TO DO IT RIGHT NOW.
The resident complied.
When the results were obtained, she was rushed back into surgery, and is now in intensive care.
The underside of an ovarian blood vessel had been nicked by the surgeon, and she was bleeding to death.
She's expected to live.
If her father hadn't been a doctor, she'd be dead.
I'm going to remember this in case anyone I know including me has surgery and afterward feels weaker and weaker and the nurses and doctors pay no attention. |
