This gave me chills, especially listening to the doctor describing the procedure. Having faced a few scary situations in the arctic--though obviously never anything this harrowing--I can appreciate the statement the doc made when describing what prompted him to take action, "the actual procedure itself was not as terrifying as the possible outcome if I didn't do it.''
Here is the full article.
I recommend listening to the doctor describing the event if you go to the article.
Pretty amazing story! I can't help but think, what if we had to do this in the ED I am currently in. Note to self, on night shift tonight...suss out where drill and makeshift shunt might be...
3 comments:
That is pretty f'ed if you ask me.
Good on him for getting away with it, but that is some seriously unconventional medicine. I mean couldn't the child have been stabilized with pharma (Mannitol, steroids) until a sterile drill could be found? Wow.
Scary stuff. I don't know what i think of this.
Again, there needs to be a much bigger emphasis on helmets for cycling. Wow.
Sounds like the child was circling the drain very quickly by that point...un-reactive pupils and unconscious. Bottom line, the kid would have probably died in short order if the physician hadn't intervened like he did.
I was chatting with the S.African doc I was working with yesterday...asking him if he'd heard the story--he hadn't so I elaborated. His response, "yah, and so? We do that type of stuff in S.Africa all the time! What's the big deal? We live in the age of ABX?!"
I had a good chuckle.
Hehe, Saffa doctors do that all the time. The ones here have excellent reps for being able to do ANYTHING at 3am when it is pouring with rain and the ambos/fire brigade have just cut someone out of a car.
Yeah, that story is both unconventional and LEGENDARY. (We wouldn't be calling legendary as much if it hadn't worked....that is what risk taking involves I guess).
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