Dr. Grumpy: "How did you get injured?"
Mr. Powerpoint: "I was hiking in Costa Rica, when I fell, and severely lacerated my left arm."
(whips out iPhone)
"This is the mountain I was hiking on."
SWIPE
"Here's the rock I tripped over. That's my blood on it."
SWIPE
"Here's a shot of my arm. You can see the muscles hanging out and everything."
SWIPE
"This is the car my buddy took me in to get help. I made a mess. Greg didn't get his deposit back."
SWIPE
"This is the clinic we found in the nearest town."
SWIPE
"This is the doctor who stitched me up."
SWIPE
"Here's his assistant, when she had her mask off."
SWIPE
"Here's me and Greg going out for beer and shrimp afterwards."
SWIPE
"Here's Greg trying to change my gauze wrap after getting wasted."
SWIPE
"Here's..."
I got to tell you, if muscles were hanging out of my arm, I would not be thinking about documenting my every move for posterity. I would be screaming my freaking head off.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm slightly in awe of his dedication.
Ugh, it's the modern version of the vacation slide show.
ReplyDeleteNot yet 40, yet I feel so blessed I was able to go through my teenage years without easily distributed, digital photographic evidence of all the things I did.
ReplyDeleteThis lends new meaning to show and tell...
ReplyDeleteWere the pics at all useful in your treatment?
ReplyDeleteJust asking. Once, I covered a child hit by a car. We (my son and I) came on the scene while I was driving him to school. (don't ask)
Anyway, when I realized why traffic was backed up, I took out pad and camera and documented scene, getting what info I could. Pre-HIPPA, I could be told what hospital the ambulance was heading to. Post HIPPA, no.
Ambulance came, the EMTs performed their magic, and I got on w/ day. Got a call almost as soon as I got to office.
It was MD at local hospital asking if he could see some of the shots. Seems he thought that knowing more about the accident could help him w/ treatment.
NORMALLY, pix by a photojournalist are not seen by anyone outside paper until published. Legal battles are fought over non-published photos. This is a very big rule, designed to keep journalists from having to be in court every day of their lives. Dr. Grumpy and I share allergy to lawyers.
Rushed down to hospital w/ camera and doc and I looked through all the pix. Learned later through sources that they helped.
So your Pt. w/ phone not so crazy.
Sounds like something I'd do, actually. I've never had the muscles hanging out of my arm, but I'm a long distance runner and once a year or so I seem to get klutzy and fall over a sidewalk, trip over my feet or slip on a leaf and down I go. I've broken my front tooth twice, given myself a huge fat lip, I have scars on my knees that are never going away, I've severely bruised my ribs (and discovered, because of that, that Percocet makes my ears ring!) Anyway, I usually take pics of my injuries just because I can. I have even been known to post them on Facebook! ;)
ReplyDeleteYou really aren't a neurologist are you ? You are really a proctologist , judging from the number of assholes you see in a day.
ReplyDeleteCosta Rica, oh yeah. Testosterone and Mtn Biking perfect together.
@Kim, That running thing keeping you healthy? Maybe I will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteI bet he tripped because he was jacking around with his phone while he was hiking.
ReplyDeletePacker, actually, yeah...aside from falling once a year, I'm in incredibly good shape! I run 8 miles a day, 6 days a week, and I have run marathons (26.2 miles) and half marathons (13.1 miles) as well as smaller races like 5, 10 and 15ks. My favorite race, though, was a 2 mile race that I participated in this past November. I had to run 2 miles, over obstacles like hay stacks, while being chased by zombies. I almost made it, too, but then some zombies from the roller derby team (on rollerblades, no less!) got me. Oh well. The race ended with the zombies and the people being chased by the zombies all getting together outside a local pub and drinking beer. It was really a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds AWESOME!!!
DeleteI assume that the slideshow was accompanied by" Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)?"
ReplyDeleteOh man, that zombies race sounds like a BLAST. Was it a fund raiser, or just for fun?
ReplyDeleteI'm an ortho resident and you would not believe how many people take pictures of their injuries, before and after I stitch them up. Some patients even take pictures of me and ask if they can post them on facebook with the rest of their injury photos (no). I draw the line at letting them take pictures of me while I'm working on them. a patient once asked me to please move so he could get a better shot. Um, I'm stitching up your foot. And I am going to do this in the position I am most comfortable in to give you the best possible result, thanks.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fundraiser for a charity that helps firefighters.
ReplyDeleteKim - this is totally off-point to Dr. Grumpy's post, but my daughter used to participate in our local Halloween hayride scare-fest. Professionals were hired to do the makeup for the zombies, ghouls, etc. One night, there was a zombie collision, as zombies are wont to do. My daughter thought she was fine until she tried to stand and walk. She was taken to the local hospital for treatment of her broken leg. It was a rather quiet night in the ER ... the doctor looked up when she was rolled in - in full zombie makeup. She looked nearly dead (well, yeah). The look on the doc's face was priceless! TCG
ReplyDeleteHa! I'm sorry your daughter broke her leg, but I would have loved to have seen the look on the doctor's face!
ReplyDeleteI have a suspicious that a neurologist is one because if someone's insides are outside, or are purulent, exposed, leaking, or otherwise not behaving "nice," then the patient is someone else's problem for the moment.
ReplyDeleteWithout coming straight out and admitting to being just like the patient Dr. Grumpy portrays here, let's just say that I have another independent data point to support my hypothesis.
Dr. Grumpy, am I right? :)
I am an ER nurse, and the medics in our city are usually pretty good about taking crash scene photos for us to view. We (the trauma dept) actually do studies on mechanism of injury vs actual injury. The photos are quite helpful in trauma care. But, I completely get Dr Gumpys irritation at having to view 25 photos of a laceration. No one cares dude... Put the phone away!
ReplyDelete