Snake bite : A story from my internship days

Okay so most of the stories you will be reading here are from my internship days. I was under rotation from department to department for a year so at the time I was basically a jack of all trades and master of none. 

And another thing I would like to highlight is the lack of people skills that most patients and healthcare workers have.

So today's memory which I would like to recall is one patient I had who was bit by a snake.

This particular man had been brought to the ER by maybe 3 or 4 friends/relatives.

The patient had apparently been working at some factory and while walking home he was bit by a snake on one of his ankles(My college is in a fairly rural area so these things happen every now and then). I was posted in the general medicine department back then but the ER interns called me to help out since they were not able to speak Tamil , I know right! what was the management thinking? Putting 6 non-Tamil speaking interns together that too in an emergency room duty in a place where Tamil is the primary language!

So anyway I go up to the patient and looked at him and saw the signature double fang marks on his ankle and now the first thing to do is identify the snake.

Now since I live in India there is a single anti-venom known as the Polyvalent antivenom which is an effective anti-venom for India's 4 most common venomous snakes. 

Which are : 

1. Russel's viper

2. Saw-scaled viper

3. Indian cobra

4. Common krait

If we find out that the snake is something other than the above listed ones we give something known as a monovalent anti-venom which is effective against the venom of one particular species of snake that it was made for.

Anyway I ask the guy "Do you know which snake it was ? Any description?"  

Now this is one of those incidents where people skills are really needed because within the next microsecond the guy shoves a polythene cover in my face and yells out "This snake sir!!!!"

And horror of horrors the polythene cover contained a dead cobra which kinda wriggled in my face due to the sudden movement made by the guy who brought it!

And i got startled and literally teleported like 10 meters away and started yelling at him about how he should have eased into the topic by saying "we have killed the snake and brought it...please take a look"  and then showed it to me.

I mean you understand right ? Things could have gone so much simpler if he was a little more discreet. So anyway the people in the ER were also petrified because someone heard me yell at the patient and only heard the part saying "The snake and brought it" so people in the vicinity thought that there was a live snake in the area and you know how it is when a group of people panic, everything becomes chaotic.

But yeah if you are wondering what happened to the patient , he recovered under our care.

Anyway that is my memory/rant for today about how sometimes people really don't know how to ease into a topic! 

First ever online rant about a patient

Most things that I will be ranting about here might seem mean and cruel but it has almost always happened to me when I am exhausted , hungry, sleep deprived , overloaded etc. I am pretty sure you know how cranky you get when you are in such a situation

So here goes

I pull 12 hour shifts at the hospital in the COVID-19 ward, usually it is heartwarming to see patients recovering and leaving the hospital while thanking you personally for your care. Sometimes it is gut wrenching to explain to the relatives/guardians over the phone or from a distance that their relative/friend/family is gonna succumb to the illness. Usually people think these are the only two things a doctor goes through. But on some days you just wanna agree with the virus.

A few weeks ago was one such day.

*Intercom rings*

Usually it is the nurses in my ward who answer the phone ...but since they were at the bedside administering drugs or checking vitals , i answered it. 

ER Nurse : Doctor is there a bed available for a new patient?

Me: There is but tell me the patient history.

ER Nurse : A young woman has come to the ER and since we are doing mandatory testing for COVID-19 i wanted to know if a bed is available in case she turns out to test positive for it.

Me: I know all that but tell me the history why is the patient in the ER in the first place ?

ER Nurse : Sir you're not gonna believe this but the patient is an 18 year old woman who attempted suicide due to some domestic issues by drinking nail polish

Me: Oh crap! what are her vitals like???

ER Nurse : Sir hear me out .... the patient drank nail polish and then a minute later she decided she didn't want to die so she drank nail polish remover as the antidote to it.

Me: ..........

So these are the kinda days when I feel I'm so done with humans and that the pandemic must run it's course.

So anyway this woman was kept under observation and treated symptomatically and she turned out to be negative and hence was discharged.

Thank you 

That is my rant for today 

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