MEDICO

EPISODE 4 A man walks, into the emergency room one sunny Sunday afternoon. He speaks, to one of the nurses ‘Please, can I see a doctor?’ The nurse looks up briefly from her charting, and after giving him one all-over look, she decides that this man, isn’t critical. Do you have a file in this hospital? He looks at her, desperation on his face ‘…what? Oh no, I don’t. This is my first time here, but I need to see a doctor.’ He pauses as he tries to read the look on her face; then says: ‘Its urgent’ The sister sighs. ‘Here, I get to decide what is urgent.’ ‘Please go over to that section by your right and get a file. The doctor has to write in a case note.’ ‘I’m telling you…’ his voice trailed into the background as the nurse continues her charting. She is about to clock out, and isn’t about to let this man be a stumbling block. No way. ********************************...

  The Struggles of a Young Resident Doctor   CHAPTER 1. When Raymond was a young child of about 6 years of age, all he had wished for was to have a large, spacey office; with cushioned chairs, a fridge (or deep freezer, in his imagination), a spin chair and an air conditioning system that could freeze the teeth. 10 years later, his aspiration had changed. It had been sudden, abrupt and right on the heels of a painful demise- that of his father; to a road traffic accident. His banker father, a saintly driver, had his car run into by a 22year old drunk, music blasting driver. On seeing the damage he’d caused, the young chap had fled rapidly from the scene. It was 9pm. It was a lonely route. His father could not have made it, not with the level of apathy with which emergency medicine was practiced in the country of Raymond’s birth; Nigeria. No air conditioning system would have been strong enough to freeze his father’s flowing blood, or to save it up in th...

EPISODE 11 As she left the Emergency Room that afternoon, Bunmi knew that she had to sort out her emotions. She also knew that she had to come to a logical, yet emotionally agreeable conclusion on whom she was going to end up with. There was absolutely no way around this. Thankfully though, today was a Friday.  Much more calming was the fact that she wasn’t on call all weekend. She had planned to leave for a private resort, treat herself to a 2-day break. These two days were obviously critical in deciding her future, the shape her life would take for a really long time. But first, she had to get out of this environment which was currently chaotic for her- away from Fola, Kenny, his mother and most of all, from the hospital whose walls reminded her on a daily basis of her choices over the past 6 years. ‘Dr. Phillips, before you leave today, ensure you write the discharge summaries for those 3 patients to be discharged from our unit.’ , one of the senior resident doctors...

EPISODE 5 ‘So, really, whose patient is she?’ Doctor Afuarida asked with impatience written all over his face Bola indicated, her body language reeking of timidity, ‘Sir, she was supposed to be my patient, but I haven’t been able to clerk her’ ‘Oh, really? She was supposed to be?’ ‘Do you even have any other patient on the ward?’ ‘Ehm…no sir. But my other patient has just been discharged’ ‘Please, leave my ward round. You are obviously unprepared to truly learn the art of medicine.’ She knew better than to plead and therefore, walked out with the little dignity she still had left. He continued lecturing the rest of the students ‘You know, whatever you do now will speak later in life and especially in your medical career. If you want to be a good doctor, it definitely begins from now- taking responsibility’ Dr.Amao, please give me a summary on this patient ’22 year old female, had appendectomy done. 1 st day post-op. Mild pain at op-site. Currently on IV Met...

 EPISODE 3 ‘Oya sorry now, we’re almost there.’ Felix kept saying as he partially carried his dear friend.  She wouldn’t hear the last of this episode once it was over, that much he knew! ‘Awww…you don’t know how painful awww… this is’ ‘Sorry, sorry’ ; he kept saying So they eventually got to the ER and after pulling out her card, used ‘medical student connection’ to see the resident that was on call in Internal Medicine unit. ‘Hello dear’ , Dr. Brown said, looking keenly at the girl that was almost doubled over in pain ‘I think you should lie down on that couch’ ‘What exactly is the problem?’ ‘She just started complaining about her abdomen about half an hour ago’ ‘Oh’. ‘Can you point to where exactly the pain started?’ he asked ‘Here’ . Linda pointed to the area around her umbilicus. ‘Have you had any episode of vomiting?’ ‘No sir’ Felix answered spontaneously. ‘You must be her boyfriend, right?’ Dr.Brown asked, with a mischievious grin ...