Friday, August 20, 2010

Pediatric ER Resident Versus Plastic Surgeon



I think this is absolutely hilarious and completely realistic! Like most plastic surgeons, I take ER call, which means the ER docs will call me for plastic surgery emergencies (dog bites, car crashes, etc.). I can't count how many times I've been called by the ER doc to take care of something any 3rd year medical student can do. I was once called into the ER in the middle of the night to see a patient with a "severe eyelid laceration." I lugged myself out of bed, drove 20 minutes to the ER, and found the patient lying on a gurney with a little blood on his eyelid. I proceeded to wipe it off to find absolutely no injury there.

No, it's not all boob jobs and facelifts!

Thanks for reading.

Michigan-based Plastic Surgeon

Anthony Youn, M.D.

7 comments:

  1. browngrl10:21 PM

    Too funny and too true!
    As a radiologist I get calls of this same calibre all the time - sometimes I feeling like asking "did you go to medical school or are you just making things up as you go" - but that's the nature of the business I guess, anyway, I enjoy reading your blog.

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  2. ER docs vary a ton. Some are quite good. Do you get many calls from the ER in which the doc says the "patient requests a plastic surgeon" for even minor injuries? That is big out here.

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  3. Lol! The price of fame...

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  4. Yes it can be ridiculous the things that we care called in for during the oddest hours of the night. It can be frustrating but we must remember that we are here to serve the patients needs

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  5. John,
    Yes, I do get those calls quite often. It's a no win situation. You come in for unnecessary consultations or you make someone mad. Either way, you lose.
    Tony

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  6. My sister used to be the admitting clerk in an emergency department, and a large part of her job was dealing with calls from frantic parents reporting that their precious snowflake had a fever.

    "What is the fever?"

    "99"

    "What is Precious Snowflake wearing?"

    "A diaper, a tee shirt, a shirt, a pair of pants, a cardigan, and we have her wrapped in a blanket so she doesn't catch a chill."

    "Why don't you remove everything but the tee shirt and the diaper, wait five minutes, then take her temperature again?"

    Five minutes later...

    "MY GOD YOU SAVED OUR BABY!"

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  7. Anonymous8:30 PM

    <3 it! Totally reminds me why I didn't go into pediatrics :)

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