CONQUEST
OF DEATH 10
URGENT!!
Please call on to casualty to see a patient of stab wounds on the abdomen.
Having received this emergency call, I rushed to
the casualty department (that’s what ERs are called in India)
“Nurse, where is the patient?” I asked the nurse
on duty.
“Here, here” The patient resting on the
stretcher raised his hand and replied.
“What’s the matter?” I asked him.
“I am a mill worker. Whether we like it or not,
we have to join worker’s unions. After an altercation with the union workers,
some people unknown to me stabbed me on my back and on the abdomen.
“When did the incident happen?,” I asked
“About half an hour ago….. As my mill is very
near the hospital, I immediately rushed to the hospital
I assessed his vital functions. His pulse was
rapid. His BP was normal. Because this was an emergency, after assessing
the vitals, I shifted the patient to the x-ray room.
His ‘wet’ film was suggestive of intestinal
perforation.
Having shifted the patient into the ward, I made
preliminary preparations for the exploration and intimated my boss.
We began operating late in the night.
The surgeons call the abdomen as ‘Pandora’s box'.
As the chief surgeon opened the abdomen, the
abdominal findings mockingly ridiculed us.
The abdominal cavity was full of blood. We
started filling the blood in a sterile container for transfusion. One of my
interns was busy with the blood bank to procure enough blood bottles for
transfusion. Another one was helping the anesthesiologist. After evacuating two
bottles of blood from the abdominal cavity, we could start exploration a bit
comfortably. I was busy searching and suturing the intestinal perforations. The
chief was trying to locate the source of bleeding. After a while, he could
locate the bleeder. He blindly clamped it. We all breathed a sigh of relief
though the trouble was not over. I completed my job. We then started searching
for other injuries. We found a tear in the kidney just in the vicinity of the
clamp. So we ligated the bleeder and removed the kidney. The next step was to
replenish the blood loss and hemodynamically stabilize the patient.
Having done that, we took a final look and
closed the abdomen after keeping the drainage tubes.
We then turned the patient one side and closed
the wound on the back.
And lo, an ordeal was over.
Post-operatively, he was stable. He developed
wound infection. It was troublesome. He was treated with antibiotics for quite
some time. He recovered and went home. He attended the out patient department
for follow up very regularly.
A True Story in Real
Life!!
A Drama in My
Life!!