Our second patient today ate lunch so put himself beyond anaesthetic care for his elective procedure.
Was just toying with the idea of heading home early to see how traumatized the dogs were, when I was asked to help out in the emergency department. They had a couple of burns patients to look after. I was one of at least ten staff looking after our patient, and there would have been the same number in the other resuscitation room looking after the more severely injured patient. The third resus room had a gunshot wound. After an hour or so, the anaesthesia team had done their bit and were allowed to go.
As we were leaving, there was a young woman on a trolley, crying, whilst a nurse was trying to explain to her that, yes, we agreed that she was unwell and needed seeing, it was just that there were some seriously injured people who had all arrived at the same time and all the staff were tied up caring for them, but they’d be with her as soon as they could.
I have zero regrets at not pursuing a career in emergency medicine.