The Last Patient of a Long Night Shift

By Birdstrike M.D.   My first night shift in a stretch of 7 was almost over.  It was 6:15 a.m. and I had to keep moving otherwise the minute I would stop, my eyelids would drop like two ton shades and I’d fall asleep.  That never makes for a good drive home after a night shift. “Got time to see one more?” asked Jenny the nurse. “Do I have choice?  The door-to-doctor time storm-troopers would have it no other way,” I grunted back, eye lids drifting closed. “Febrile seizure,” it said. Good, this should be quick and easy, I think to myself.  We’ll give some Tylenol, reassess in 30 minutes and this baby will be happy, smiling and bouncing off the walls.  That way I can get out of here at 7 a.m. and be home in bed with my eye blinders on drifting towards sweet REM sleep at 7:20 a.m.  My sanity depends on it.  15 feet away, I head towards the room.  Looking into room 4, I expect to see the usual post-febrile seizure toddler, sitting up in bed, recovered, awake and well appearing.  First I see the child’s mother, well put together, attractive, smiling and relaxed.  I cross the threshold to the room, look down on the hospital stretcher and I see a child, about 1-year-old, still seizing.  Still seizing?  I think to myself.  This isn’t right. “Jenny, get in here!  We’ve got a seizing baby,” I say.  I look down at the child, who is pale, head turned to the right, with the left arm twitching violently.  “Call respiratory!  Jenny, yo...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs