eighth first day

Over the course of the year I have found increasing comfort in my chosen route to be a medical doctor - of some sort. What I appreciate the most is the patients and their stories and the privilege I have, of knowing them for however short the while.

Here is one of my recent favourites:

The other evening I picked up a chart in the ER. The triage form read "lower extremity injury: mild-moderate pain +/- deformity" - so far pretty standard for the area of emergency I was working in. A quick glance at the patient information informed me that this was a 78 year-old male, which made me worried about a fall...and a hip. My next step, before I see the patient is to glance at the nurses notes, for the vitals signs - stable, and any history they might have taken during their assessment. This went something along the lines of: Was pushing car in reverse when he was knocked down by the car door and run over by the front tire. No loss of consciousness...Now, the fact that this person had been triaged to the Treatment side of emergency meant that he was pretty stable - but run-over at 78? I need to see this man right now!

I went to see him and verify his story, and sure enough, he was unable to get out of his alley because of a construction crew, and so when he put his car in reverse, and it wouldn't work, he thought that he would just get out and give it a little help. Well, then the care started to roll a little but faster than he could push, and it was getting away from him. With real concern for the neighbors fences, he thought that he had better try to jump in the car and hit the brakes - there is no way that this could turn out badly - right? He managed to get one leg in the car, but then he got knocked over. As he saw that the car was still rolling, and about to roll over him, he managed to get out of the way - almost. The front wheel still went over is arm and leg. Then the car continued down the alley and was stopped (gently it seems) by a telephone poll. He was fine apparently. Reluctant to let the construction workers call 9-1-1 - and then when they arrived, he arranged for them to follow him back up to his house, as he drove the car back (couldn't leave it at the end of the alley of course).

Turned out he was fine, other than some scrapes and bruises. All of his 78-year old bones were intact. The only thing left to fix was that reverse.