What if you break your wrist/hand/arm during a surgical residency?

[wanderingorion]

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Random thought the other day. What do you do for the 6-8 weeks when you're casted and during PT to recover full function? Anyone with experience in this area? I figured it's just a shift to clinical work, etc.

 

[DoctwoB]

It sucks. Happened to a buddy of mine snowboarding. It just means you do all clinic, floor work, etc and none of the operating until you recover. Makes you think twice about activities that put you in harms way.

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

one of my co-interns had a cast for 6 weeks. Got through it, just did nonop stuff for a while. I also had surgery during my residency and didn’t operate until the wound healed. No big deal. I wouldn’t do very dangerous activities though because people might call your judgment into question.

 

[Ms Procrastinator]

I saw an episode of scrubs where Turk broke his arm and had to do IM with JD. I always wondered what happened in real life. Nice gif by the way OP.