Sunday, October 19, 2025

Weekend on call

One of my consults this weekend was an unfortunate fellow in ICU who'd recently had heart surgery. For whatever reason they'd decided to leave his chest cavity open for a few days, in case they had to go back in urgently.

So I went in the room. As expected, the guy was sedated and intubated. I checked his pupils and reflexes, the usual neurology stuff.

Being curious, I couldn't help looking into his partially open chest cavity, where, under surgical-sterile plastic sheeting, I could see his heart beating.

A nurse in the room came over and offered me a Junior Mint.