ET2: Through The Storm

Chapter 20

Aron Ryle's POV

Rotating through the busy emergency room, indeed, will always be a daunting task for us, the medical students. Our department was never free from the chaotic times because emergency medicine doctors work on the front line of hospital care. There are always innumerable unexpected patients coming in at a time. They are suffering from various traumas that require immediate attention. Then emergency nurses followed the triage as soon the patients came in. Patients' here and there, ER's door has never been closed.

It's a typical day in the ER to have a hectic and frenzied ambiance, yet ER doctors have to remain cool under pressure amidst the patients distressing injuries. We really need to bear in mind our role, to give our patients the care they need. This is what I love about emergency medicine because we are the first doctor the patient sees when they come to the hospital. We are seeing different kinds of complaints (ie, abdominal pain, headache, chest pain, shortness of breath and back pain) from patients with different backgrounds. Emergency medicine's nature as more complaint driven rather than diseased-based specialty. I heard a lot of people saying that it was just easy dealing with it, but it has never been easy as it appears.

We are expected to evaluate various patients, recognize an immediate life-threatening illness and must be aware of the worst-case diagnoses. The knowledge we obtain from emergency medicine is quite vast.

At emergency medicine we are needed to perform a lot of procedures, life-saving procedures like intubation - putting the airways in, doing the chest tubes, arterial blood gas (ABG) sampling, insertion of intravenous (IV) catheters, laceration repair, phlebotomy and many more. It's quite handy.

During our years, we can assess a patient before the attending physician does yet it is imperative for us to understand our limitations. We are dealing with our patient's life, after all. If we could notice that the patient is sick, exhibiting some symptoms, we should inform the attending physician right away.

Throughout the journey, we developed our relationship with our patients. We need to give them the care that they are longing. Of course, there are always some patients showing attitudes and moods that is foreign to our system, yet we need to deal with them professionally. Having the disease yourself is already too much to bear. We need to show them comfort and respect while they are at the hospital.

Maybe this is what drives me to become a doctor. I want to give incentive to those people who are suffering from any kind of illness. I don't want to be just a doctor who assists them to get well from the sickness, I want to become a friend while we are in the process.

"Having that faraway look within your eyes, thinking deep, huh?" Yesenia's voice halted my mind from wandering.

"Yeah," I replied. "I really love the idea that I am in the hospital."

"But a lot of people hate hospitals."

I nodded. "Yeah. Maybe, because they are ill and other personal reasons. But this hospital has become their home while they are sick," I said, expressing my opinion.

A quick smile flickered over her lips. "Hospital is hell, Ryle. Imagine, the pain you are bearing with those machines all over your body and you are barely breathing."

"Then, why do you become a doctor?" I asked.

She confronted me with a confident smile. "To lessen the burden. To make them feel that doctors are there in the hospital to help them."

"Ayon naman pala. Pareho naman pala tayo ng iniisip!" I snickered.

"Niliko ko lang ng kaunti," she pronounced, smiling. "Wearing this white coat is extremely good," she continued.