So you want to be an anesthesiologist?

[Noyac]

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https://www.doximity.com/doc_news/v2/entries/5603273

I liked this article. I have thought about this very subject many times. There are few people in this world and sometimes even in our own professional environment that fully realize what ur pts may be going through at the moment. You can mention it to them and they will get it but few actually are tuned in at the very moment. Don't take these events lightly. They can haunt you.

 

[aneftp]

https://www.doximity.com/doc_news/v2/entries/5603273

I liked this article. I have thought about this very subject many times. There are few people in this world and sometimes even in our own professional environment that fully realize what ur pts may be going through at the moment. You can mention it to them and they will get it but few actually are tuned in at the very moment. Don't take these events lightly. They can haunt you.

Why not link article directly? Hate redirect links. Google with their amp re links is the absolute worst

https://www.theguardian.com/healthc...28/anaesthetist-last-person-patient-speaks-to

 

[aneftp]

Anyways. To the subject. Americans, most of them don't give a crap. Their last words on their mind especially with elective surgery is when can I can eat. How soon can I drive.

I need that epidural at 3am in the USA. Where 80-90% of us women get epidural. Vs 30% of women in Holland get epidural.

It's this sense of entitlement of the USA health care culture

 

[Noyac]

Why not link article directly? Hate redirect links. Google with their amp re links is the absolute worst

https://www.theguardian.com/healthc...28/anaesthetist-last-person-patient-speaks-to

Cuz I suck at computers!

 

[Noyac]

Anyways. To the subject. Americans, most of them don't give a crap. Their last words on their mind especially with elective surgery is when can I can eat. How soon can I drive.

I need that epidural at 3am in the USA. Where 80-90% of us women get epidural. Vs 30% of women in Holland get epidural.

It's this sense of entitlement of the USA health care culture

This is true of the US pt mentality but the article wasn't addressing these pts per se'. It's addressing those pts that come to us were either we know or they know (usually both of us know) that there is a good chance they won't wake up from this. F you do this long enough there will be more than a few of these pts depending on where you work (level1 etc.).

The last one I remember was an elderly lady with what we suspected was dead bowel. How much dead bowel was what we were going in to find out. I knew she might not make it. She was going to the ICU asleep at best. We opened her abdomen and the entire bowel was dead. She never woke up. But as I was getting her off to sleep we were talking to each other clearly, I don't remember what about. I knew I was probably the last person she would ever speak with.

 

[OB1🤙]

I have a little corner of my brain where I keep patients' last words they ever spoke on Earth. Too many for my liking, but I do sick hearts. I don't like visiting this little corner but sometimes you have to.

The one that makes me grin just a little was a guy coming for a CABG. Last words that dude said in this life: "OK doc, I'm ready for my hysterectomy!"

 

[deleted697127]

Anyways. To the subject. Americans, most of them don't give a crap. Their last words on their mind especially with elective surgery is when can I can eat. How soon can I drive.

I need that epidural at 3am in the USA. Where 80-90% of us women get epidural. Vs 30% of women in Holland get epidural.

It's this sense of entitlement of the USA health care culture

If you're hearing last words before a 3am labor epidural, you're doing it wrong.

 

[dhb]

If you're hearing last words before a 3am labor epidural, you're doing it wrong.

Siht happens... amniotic fluid embolus

 

[aneftp]

Siht happens... amniotic fluid embolus

Yup. 4am code. May 11 2003. I remember it like it was yesterday. CPR for 30 minutes. Amazingly she walked out of the hospital. Did have a little brain damage but her father admired she was already developmentally delayed! Saved by pre existing conditioned.

 

[Noyac]

"Saved by preexisring condition"!

 

[drmwvr]

Not enough melodrama in this profession without manufacturing it? The same words spoken by a patient that didn't die some how gain significance because he did?

 

[Noyac]

Well unfortunately this happened to me this weekend.
I had an elderly pt (90+ yrs) with a bowel obstruction for 3 days. Gen surg tried everything in order to not bring him to the OR. But in the end we couldn't let him writhe (?) in pain and we had to try. This pt was spry and all his faculties were on point. But you don't take these pts to the OR without some inkling that they may not make it.
The case was awful. Everything the surgeon touched tore and leaked. He had a h/o radiation. Many hours later we made it to ICU in low dose levophed but not looking good for the future. He expired the next day.

I totally knew that this was most likely it. I talked with him as I gently drifted him off to sleep and I believe he knew as well that this was it for him most likely.

I think I feel some comfort in that I am the last person they see and speak with in times like this.

 

[deleted59964]

if i frame my consent discussion as "the surgeon and I will do everything we can to save your life" ... you're likely toast.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

Not enough melodrama in this profession without manufacturing it? The same words spoken by a patient that didn't die some how gain significance because he did?

Many cultures and religions do place an emphasis on words spoken at the end of life (see "deathbed confessions"), but nobody's forcing you to view them differently if you don't want to. If you think "Man, I wish I could have one more beer" means the same coming from a wasted 21yo in the middle of a night of drinking and a 98yo WW2 vet dying in the ICU, go for it. You just have to come to grips with the fact that you are probably in the minority.