Time is passing really quickly this morning. After being woken prematurely at 4:30am to help out with a resus case, a few more soon followed -- a hypotensive episode post-pacemaker insertion, a woman who drank Chlorox and slashed her wrists after an argument with her husband, and a couple who fell off a motorcycle that skidded. Just 30 more minutes to go! :)

Reading DocShazam's Jan 30 blog entry, I'm almost jealous of all the excitement she's experiencing. :P THREE helicopter flights in one day?! Landing on the interstate?! Aargh! I want to do that! :D

I guess we have our own thrills in the local context. Riding in ambulances back in med school was kinda fun ( once I got past the motion sickness, that is ). In truth, there were loads of non-emergency calls, mostly in the form of young women with hysteria after fighting with their husbands, or the hilarious case of a fellow who was jabbed over the sternum by a relative in the midst of a heated argument. The sternum, for your info, is a hardy piece of bone stretching down the middle of the chest wall, so the fork didn't penetrate beyond the skin layer. Some were prank calls that led us on a wild goose chase -- I hated those -- but the most interesting case was probably a call in the middle of the night which brought us to the scene of a pretty bad road traffic accident involving a drunken man whose car ploughed into a passing taxi travelling at high speed. Fortunately, everyone involved was all right, but from a lowly med student's perspective, it was something unforgettable. Nowadays, even major traumas don't get the adrenaline flowing. But being woken up to help resuscitate someone while I'm still bleary-eyed is pretty scary. :D

So go read Shazam's blog! She mentions "John", who turns out to be "Jane's" brother. If you're not familiar with Jane, scroll down to the bottom to read about her heartbreaking story. :(