Today was another great addition to the stressful theme of current and future personal events. I live about 30 minutes from the area that was hit by tornadoes early this morning, and I don't think I've ever seen our ED as full as it was this morning. Crappy news is that all the patients we saw were pediatric multiple traumas, good news is they all survived or were transferred out; sad news is that at least one of them is now on his second set of parents. And he's not even in middle school yet.

You know, of the 30 or so people who lived on the street where this tornado touched down, it seemed like virtually all of them were related. We're sitting in the command center looking at the white board with all the patients (or dead at the scene) on it, their ages, their current locations, and the places that they're going to be transferred to. Seriosuly, maybe five different families.

The worst part was when someone would call in looking for a SoAndSo whose name was written under the heading 'Confirmed Fatalities.' No one was really quite sure how you effectively communicate information like that over the phone without sounding like a soulless son of a bitch, so we just referred them to County. Good God.

The Wife had her clinical rotation in the ED today too. Talk about trial by fire.

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Posted by: shank at 09:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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