Finishing ER Clinicals

So it has been a busy past few days. The ER was insane. Had my first
Gunshot wound victim to take care of. Victim of a drive by shooting.
He was out walking to the barber shop to get a haircut at 1030 at
night with 600 bucks in his pocket. Apparently the place stays open
late and gives great haircuts. According to the police people drive
up there, go inside, and within a few minutes they are coming back
outside with smiles on their faces and haircuts that look suspiciously
identical to the ones they already had.

Needless to say he was quite the patient. Also had a girl try and
kill herself with Aspirin, Advil, smoking crack, and snorting
cocaine. She was 22 but she looked about 40. She said goodbye to her
kidneys that day and will be on dialysis for the rest of her life.

Then we had the guy involved in a high speed chase who lost control
of his car and ran into a woman in a jeep cherokee. The state police
deny chasing him but they were right behind him with lights and sirens
on until the accident. The woman was fine, just a sore ankle. The
guy driving gave me an opportunity to assist with placing a chest tube
in order to re-inflate his lung.

The night ended at 230 am with a really nice guy who decided to play
chicken with a tree, get thrown from his vehicle, and they found him
sitting up against the car since he was having a hard time walking on
his ankle, which had been completely shattered. If he had not been
thrown from the car I would have never met him because he would have
been dead at the scene due to the entire passenger compartment being
crushed. He refused any pain meds and said the ankle only hurt when
we pressed on it. I can honestly say he is a bigger man than me and
thats the thought going through my head as I removed the gauze which
had a piece of his ankle bone on it. I could see the artery that
supplied his foot with blood actually pulsating.

On March 21st the young girl I treated for the overdose passed away leaving two young boys behind. I found out she had been the girlfriend of a friend of mine for 4 years when they were in high school. Life is never fair and you never know just how close you are to anyone or anything.