A Surprise in Obstetric Theatres
This may come as a surprise to those who bemoan the stress, unpredictability and long hours, but it was refreshingly great to be on-call last week! Predictably there were frustrations, as I found myself frequently lost in this new hospital, constantly ignorant of how the system works and rather peeved at being left high and dry by a rota gap for the on-call SHO on two days. But in general it was good to be back on the horse, attempting to sift through and make sense of huge numbers of patients with belly pain, vomiting and bleeding that were coming at me from all directions, and trying to determine who needed an operation and in what order. One of the highlights, having just unscrubbed after finishing a particularly horrendous appendix, was a call from obstetric theatres, asking to attend for a woman having a c-section. Scrubbing in, the Consultant Obstetrician had already got into the peritoneal cavity, and was concerned about a small bowel injury. The patient had had previous c-secti...